


New Feeling

by SaturdayPeople



Series: Once in a Lifetime [1]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, VR Troopers
Genre: 1990s, Angst, Bullying, Family, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Implied Relationships, Native American Character(s), Pre-Canon, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama, talking heads
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-01-20 15:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12436230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaturdayPeople/pseuds/SaturdayPeople
Summary: "You'll make friends if you let it happen, Lady."Spring Break in Angel Grove was soon. Billy was planning on staying at home and working on his projects while his friends were going out of town. However, things are changed when he’s asked to spend time with the new girl, Lady Johnson, who lives across the street. Lady has not taken the move from Cross World City to little Angel Grove well at all, but Billy is going to try to help her out. Though, things are easier said than done.





	1. peyak

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place before MMPR and VR Troopers, specifically in 1993 when they're in 10th grade. Specifying a year makes my headcanon (MMPR being in 11th grade, Zeo in 12th (with Billy graduating at the beginning of the year and Turbo at the very end of the 12th year) kind of awkward, since MMPR was three seasons/three years IRL and Zeo was airing in 1996 and VRT in 1994 (and Ryan apparently being 18 according to that one promo and out of school, since you don't see them in high school shenanigans). But... c'est la vie. :')
> 
> Please feel free to leave a review with your thoughts, it'd be really appreciated!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I've been working on my OC and her story since I first really got into Power Rangers (and VR Troopers!) this year in April. I had a lot of fun planning stuff out and thinking of scenarios for her. I hope that you guys like her, I put a lot of thought into her and tried to make her hopefully interesting (doesn't mean you have to like her though!). She's First Nations (Swampy Cree, specifically) like I am, and while our experiences are different than let's say characters like Sam Trueheart in MMPR/Zeo, there are some issues that are dealt with in this fanfiction. Just a warning so it doesn't come out of left field. Also, warning for language, there's a fuck load of that in this :').
> 
> Thank you Uni, Mello and Annie for looking over this for me!

 

 

_"I-We'll miss you, Lady."_

These words were fresh in Lady Johnson's mind as she stared out the window of the U-Haul, watching the bright blue sky melt into a pale yellow-orange and green signs that passed by way too fast for her to read. She wasn't sure how to feel at the moment. She wasn't sure if it was okay for her to feel  _anything_  right now. Her father dropped the news that he was tired of moving around and ready to retire months ago. Late last year actually. That would've been fine and dandy with Lady, in fact, it gave her a lot of hope. If he was tired, then that would mean they were going to stay in Cross World City, right?

That was apparently not the case.

Her father, Dr. Ian Johnson, decided he wanted to settle in Angel Grove. As soon as possible. Couldn't wait until she graduated. Couldn't even wait until this school year was over. Ian needed to be there as soon as possible. Lady and her friends be damned.

Allegedly, it was the place he met her mother twenty-something years ago. Why he would want to live there of all places, especially under those circumstances, was lost on her. At least Angel Grove was in the same state as Cross World City. "Just a few hours away. If she got her full license, she can go visit during breaks!" Apparently.

The whole situation simply never felt real. It didn't feel real when Ian had dropped the news. It didn't feel real when she told her friends. It didn't feel real when she had packed the very last box or when the For Sale sign showed up on their front lawn. Not even as they drove down the Californian high way, Cross World City fading further into the horizon behind them. Lady had expected, or hoped if she was being completely honest for once, that out of the blue, her dad would laugh and reveal that it was all a big joke with balloons falling from the ceiling. But the big reveal never came.

The chances of that happening  _now_  were clearly nonexistent.

"You wanna put in one of your Talking Heads tapes, Little Lady?"

She shrugged.

"C'mon, talk to me."

She rolled her shoulders and slumped further into the seat. Her gaze went everywhere but his direction before settling on the locket around her neck, her thumbnail opening it only for her to close it then open it again. She kicked off her tacky suede clogs—why did she even keep these, she hated them— then propped her bare feet up on the dashboard. Her hazel eyes flickered from her locket to her feet. The sight of her sloppily painted toes wiggling in the air made her frown.

_"Kaitlin... you suck," Lady said, trying not to laugh as she pulled her feet off of the blonde's lap._

_Kaitlin scoffed, making a show of screwing the metallic purple nail polish bottle shut and 'slamming' it onto the nightstand. "I'm sorry that my painting skills aren't up to your standards, Milady."_

_Lady snorted as she tried to turn around and place her feet onto the mattress without rubbing them the wrong way and getting nail polish everywhere. "You're worse than I fuckin' am, man. You're just splashing it all around 'n' shit with the brush. I tried to do yours as neat as I could!" She said, leaning over slightly to point at Kaitlin's feet. Bold fire engine red made up Kaitlin's toenails, in neat but uneven streaks. "I expected something like mine is all..."_

_"Well, I'll try to get better for when you visit," Kaitlin said, her light joking tone faltering near the end of her sentence. She coughed, wriggling up the bed to lean against the wall like Lady was. "I'll paint Ryan and JB's nails, fingers and toes if I have to."_

_"Christ, would they even let you? Guys are always weird about that shit."_

_"I'll_ make  _them let me."_

_They shared a laugh together, Lady leaning in towards Kaitlin and practically laying on the other's stomach upright. Somehow. "Ryan would probably want black or something cool to match his fuckin' motorbike," she said, picking at her fingernails. They were getting long and sharp enough to hurt if she made a fist. It was taking all of her willpower to not bite them off. "JB... I dunno. Red."_

_"That sounds about right."_

_"If you do paint their nails or whatever... Send me pictures. Send me 'em every time you guys write... Please," Lady said softly, her voice beginning to catch here and there._

_"Of course. You better write too, take pictures and stuff of Angel Grove. Send pictures of guys and girls you think are cute so I can make fun of you."_

_Lady smiled and nodded, trying to ignore the heartache and focus on the Soul Asylum song bleeding through Kaitlin's stereo._

" **Lady**." Her father's voice was stern, solid, serious. Three things that he wasn't. It was enough to rip her from her thoughts and actually make her look at him for the first time during the trip. She pushed up her heart-shaped prescription sunglasses before straightening herself up. He wasn't looking at her, instead focusing on the paved road in front of him. "I know that you're fuckin' pissed off with me about this whole thing."

' _Fucking pissed off is a bit of an understatement, honestly_.' She thought with a roll of her eyes.

"But, I really feel like Angel Grove would be good for you. Something will happen there. Something or someone. It'll change your fuckin' life like it did with me," he said, stealing a glance at her every few words. "If it weren't for Angel Grove, you wouldn't be here. I remember you  _begging_ me to take you here when you were ten."

' _Look at how that shit turned out. And_ _ **no**_ _I didn't, jackass_.'

"It'll be different there, Lady. I know Kaitlin 'n' the guys were your friends. But you'll make more. I'm sure of it."

' _Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, shut up, shut up, shut up, you fucking dickhead_.'

"You'll make friends that'll last a lifetime there, Lady."

"Did it turn out that way for you, Dad?" She finally spat.

He rolled his eyes as he decided to ignore her words. "You'll make friends if you let it happen, Lady."

She grit her teeth before letting herself slump into the seat again, making a show of slamming her heels against the truck dashboard. ' _That's not up to me._ '

* * *

"Looks like the new neighbours are here, hun."

"They're here awfully late, aren't they?"

"Yeah, it's almost six."

Mr. and Mrs. Cranston were a simple couple, they liked to believe. Life wasn't too eventful on their end, at least, when their only child wasn't making a racket in their garage. Maybe it wasn't right to call it  _their_  garage anymore, since they let him have it as his own lab in the seventh grade. He was in there all the time anyway, always working on his inventions, to various degrees of success, or just general experiments. When he wasn't locked up in his room or at the library, anyway. It just made sense for them to officially give him the space. It was much better for him to make a mess in there and not worry about the curtains lighting on fire.  _Again_.

They kept to themselves mostly, and for the longest time, they assumed that William would have as well. But, they were pleasantly surprised when he had made some lifelong friends as a child. At least, that's what they believed. The move from Chicago to Angel Grove did him good, they thought. His friends invited him to almost everything, even if he wasn't nearly as athletic as them. Athletics weren't the boy's forte, which was most likely why he never showed too much interest in it, besides asking to take gymnastics with one of his friends in the past. He participated in the community, volunteering for events and charities, though some of them left them a little worried for his health and safety. What kind of charity involved races on ATVs!? He didn't even have his license back then! But, maybe next year, they'd let him join. Since his friends turned out okay, and he did seem to take their "SAFETY FIRST!" lessons to heart when he got his license. Maybe it'd be okay.

"Should we welcome them to the neighbourhood, Darla?" He asked, sneaking a peek at the house across the street from the window. Only two people got out of the U-Haul, a man and a girl around William's age.

Darla shook her head, sliding a plate of tuna casserole towards him. "Not right now anyway. We haven't even started dinner yet..." She sighed softly, looking at the doorway that had lead to the hallway. There wasn't any sound of William washing his hands or even coming out of the garage. She sighed once again, huffier than before. She had told him that dinner would be done soon and to go wash up ten minutes ago! "Lee, can you go get him?"

Copying his wife, Lee Cranston stood up with a sigh and made his way out of the kitchen-dining area, down the hall near the entrance of the home and opened the door to the garage. There was his son, William lying on the ground. Well, not quite, as he was actually on a mechanic's creeper, working on the underside of the old bug that his uncle gave him as a reward for getting his learner's last year. It hadn't gotten much use yet, as he hadn't gotten it to run in the way he liked it  _quite_  yet.

"Hey, Bill, your mother called you ten minutes ago," Lee said, raising his voice just so he could be heard from under the car. Sometimes his son had just gotten so immersed in his work that he couldn't hear anyone. It didn't help that he sometimes blasted music while working on just about everything that wasn't homework. That wasn't the case tonight however. A moment had passed before Billy rolled out from under the car, his hands and cheeks caked in oil.

"Ah, my apologies, Father. I didn't realize that time had passed so expeditiously, I was performing maintenance under the car. It's unequivocal that Uncle Oscar didn't take adequate care of the conveyance's underside, it seems. I'm assured that once rudimentary maintenance is culminated, I can commence working on the more arduous aspects such as superseding the engine with a potent enough engine and expeditor-"

"Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you, son," Lee said with an apologetic smile. While it was great to hear about his son's projects, his area of expertise was more in English, specifically Literature, and he had a hard time keeping up with his son when he got into science and mathematics. He even had some trouble keeping up with his extensive vocabulary—especially when he would use words incorrectly from time to time. "Come on now," he said with a warm smile, helping his son onto his feet. "Let's get washed up before your mother gets  _really_  upset."

"Affirmative."

* * *

"Dad, this is fuckin' horseshit," Lady mumbled as she unceremoniously dropped the fourth and fifth box of books into what was going to be the office.

"She speaks," was all Ian had to say as he wormed his way out of the room-slash-maze of boxes and into the hallway.

"Fuck off."

"You're lucky you're you because if you were one of your cousins, I'd smack the Injun outta ya, Little Lady."

Lady grit her teeth, her hands clenched tightly together, jagged nails digging into her palms. A white-hot jolt struck her in the chest as she clenched and unclenched her hands. "You'vebeensayingthatforfuckin'everandnothing'shappened."

Ian reached out and ruffled her hair, though not much could be done since it was tied up into two tight braids. "You're right, and if I tried, you'd better put those boxing skills to use and knock my fuckin' teeth out." She bit her lip and looked away as she tried to duck away from her dad's touch. "If I ever try to lay a hand on you, no matter how many times you fuckin' swear at me, knock me the fuck out. Same with any other man. Twice as hard if they're a white man."

Lady bit her lip harder, trying in earnest to keep it from curling upward.

"Trying to be mad, c'mon... let's get the shit in for your room. You still want the basement, right?"

"Yeah."

Without a word, the two made their way down the hall and stairs and into where they thought the living room was going to be. It was a wide open area, open concept Lady thought it might've been called. The kitchen theoretically could see where the future TV set would go, as long as it was placed on the wall where the house faced the street. The space made it perfect for the haphazardly stacked boxes to be gathered, some of them in incomplete and complete pyramids or towers or just in the middle of their path and in the way. The furniture beyond bed frames, mattresses, a beat up threadbare couch along with things Lady deemed ' _too delicate to be crammed into a cramped van_ ' would be in tomorrow. Hopefully. What with the movers somehow missing an important lane change and winding up on the way to the Mariner Bay-Turtle Cove route instead. Somehow.

They journeyed through the maze of boxes and up and down the basement stairs, loudly cursing whenever one of the boxes for  _The Lady's Domain_  was buried under boxes for at least one different room in the house. Soon, the basement was as close as full as it could be with half of their things on the highway, seven or so hours away.

Lady sighed as she pushed a tack into the drywall in a decently sized room in the basement, which was the opposite side of the laundry room which was beside the basement bathroom. She then hung up one of her cork boards, which was covered in photos of her friends from Cross World City. Her hazel eyes scanned the board, flickering from memory to memory, some captured on Polaroid or cheap-by-Kaitlin's-standards Kodak or the occasional 'professional', developed by hand in her Photography 20 class photo by Kaitlin herself. Lady's eyes fell on one picture in particular, right in the middle of the board, obscured by a shot of them surrounding Ryan's hound, Jeb, in one of the city's parks.

**Winter Formal, 10th grade. 1992.**

They were standing in Lady's old house, the four of them standing in the living room with the TV on behind them, her dad not wanting to miss a second of Die Hard even as he tried to take the dozens of pictures that he was asked to take by the other's parents.

Lady didn't want to go the dance at all then. At first.

_"Why don't you want to go?" Asked Ryan, who held the punching bag still for Lady, wincing every time she laid a strike onto it. He felt every one, the force mostly getting absorbed into the sand but it almost hurt._

_"I'unno..." She said, pushing up her glasses with her glove before going for a right jab. "I don't... I don't know dances very well. Just from movies, I guess, and they make them sound so... catty." There was a pause. "Like, what if someone_ dies _."_

_Ryan snorted, his hands slipping from the sides of the bag. "_ What _?"_

_"Carrie." This was followed by a flurry of fast, yet hard, punches to the middle of the bag. "Like... psychic shit."_

_"_ Maybe  _in some movie or game but it's just high school dance... Nothing weird like that happens at Cross World City," he said, gripping tightly onto the bag to keep it steady for her as he spoke. Then, something crawled into his mind. He bit his lip, wondering if it was a question he should really ask. "...Or is it something else in that movie?" He asked, as gently as possible._

_Lady stopped._

_"Sorry-"_

_"No... I mean, maybe that's part of it... Like, nothing happened here or anything but it's like what if someone hated me secretly and they're planning something and then it happens there and then stuff starts and you guys get-"_

_Ryan dropped his hands from the bag and slid over to Lady, his hands hovering above her shoulders for a moment before placing them down. He gave her a gentle shake. "I don't think anything like that's gonna happen._ If  _it does, and it_  won't _, happen... The guys and I would stay by your side. You're stuck with us for_ life _."_

_She shot him a smile, a sheepish one but a smile all the less, before pushing up her glasses again. "Yeah, 'cause you fuckers can't take a message. You, in particular, you nosy fuck." She gave him a playful shove, before holding out her hands which were still clad in boxing gloves, wanting him to undo them for her. "I'll... think about it."_

_"Nice," he said as he undid the straps and pulled one of them off for her. His blue eyes flickered from the glove and down to her face, her eyes looking away from him. "Hey, did you... have anyone in mind? If you do go?"_

_"Huh? What'd you mean?"_

_"For a date, it's one of those the girl asks the guy things."_

_She blinked, thick eyebrows shooting upward. "Oh shit... I thought that dance was in March..."_

_"The school has two of them. Winter Formal in December and Sadie Hawkins in March."_

_"Ah." The small smile was still on her lips, though it was widening more and more with every second. Her free hand pushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear as she shot him a look before dashing down to undo the other glove and tie them together. This would keep her fingers busy and not tangle themselves into each other. "Why do you wanna know?"_

_Ryan let out a soft laugh, a dusting of pink appearing on his cheeks. "I was just wondering... I mean, Kaitlin asked JB the other night..."_

_"Is this your way of asking me to ask you to the dance, Mr. Steele?"_

_Ryan sucked in a breath, a hand reaching up to cover his face and dragging it downwards, stretching his features out. '_ Shit _.'_

_"Okay." He looked over at her, seeing that she wasn't looking at him, maybe out of embarrassment herself. "I'll go if..._  only  _you go with me, Ryan."_

_"O-of course."_

* * *

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" asked Lady once Kaitlin and JB walked to their table, their once pure, virginal, white clothes now looking like a crime scene. A pinkish crime scene that smelled like cherry Kool-aid, but it was a bloody mess regardless.

"Be thankful you wore black and dark blue," said JB as he grabbed one of the swan-shaped napkins on the table and dabbed at his jacket. "My Dad is going to flip when he sees this..."

Lady looked over at Kaitlin, in hopes to get some answers but only found the same scene. Her friend muttering under her breath as she tried to clean up the dress she wore, despite secretly knowing it was futile. She shrugged before looking over at Ryan, who looked like he was trying not to laugh at his friends' misfortune.

He looked good tonight, she thought. They all did really. Lady felt like she had turned back into a pumpkin right when Kaitlin showed up at her house with her coiffed hair, arranged in soft sandy blonde waves that framed her face beautifully, and makeup that didn't look like a six-year-old that snuck into their mom's makeup drawer. Even if Lady would never admit it, her friend's tits looked bangin' in that dress. There were moments when Kaitlin was helping her with her too-fucking-long hair, she had to tear her eyes away from the blonde's chest in the mirror. Miraculously, Kaitlin had managed to get her looking decent looking before the boys showed up. Lady's long dark hair was up in a high ponytail with little butterfly clips in front of it, her eyeliner looking 'smoky'–only because she smudged the hell out of it—even though she was just going to hide her eyes with thick, dark sunglasses like always and heels that miraculously didn't kill her. Nothing could save her from the black and blue ruffled hand-me-down monstrosity that was her dress though. It was probably considered frumpy and awful at her older cousin's prom in 1983. That seemed to be something she had in common with JB tonight, seeing as the white suit he wore was probably as old as he was. The only difference was that he made it look good. Ryan was in a standard black tux with a dark blue shirt that almost matched Lady's dress. It was simple, but  _fuck_  if she could keep herself from stealing glances at him. He probably looked godly standing next to her.

"Hey, do you wanna dance?" Ryan asked. His voice brought her back to the present, which was currently the middle of Whitney Houston belting out her soulful soprano through speakers in the middle of a not- _that_ -fancy hotel's ballroom.

Lady blinked before looking at her hands in her lap. "Uh..." She wondered if he had waited for a song like this to come up before shaking the thought out of her head. ' _Get a grip, Lady. Why would he do that_?'

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I just figured... it's a dance so..."

"I," she started, her hands clenching into fists. "I do but..." ' _People will see you and feel sorry for you_.'

"Well, that's enough for me." Ryan stood up and held out his hand for her to take. "C'mon, JB and Kaitlin will come too. Right guys?"

"Yeah, yeah..." JB said before turning towards Kaitlin and bowing in an exaggerated fashion. "May I have this dance, Madam?"

Kaitlin swooned or pretended to anyway, before taking JB's arm. "How could I resist? Let us dance the night away~."

Lady watched the two debut onto the floor, swirling and flailing their arms behind them dramatically. "Fuckin' dorks..." she said with a smile.  _'At least I won't be the stupidest person on the floor_.' She stood up and finally took Ryan's arm. "I'm not very good, dude."

"I know. I've seen you try to copy David Byrne— _ **hey**_!" Ryan squealed when Lady swatted him hard in the shoulder with her other hand. They both laughed as they made their way to the floor, not quite to the middle since they didn't want to lose their friends. By the time they got there, Whitney Houston faded into nothing, making Lady let out a sigh.

' _Thank. God._ '

The music that played next was a lot more upbeat, actually danceable. But that revelation through the brunette into a crisis; how the fuck do you dance to dance music with other people? As embarrassing as it would've been to dance to "I Will Always Love You" with one of your best friends, at least all you had to do was shift side to side an appropriate ("Save Room For Jesus!" was something an old Catholic teacher would tell her in sixth grade during a 'sock hop'.) distance away from each other while gripping onto each other in an embarrassing death grip.

"You're hurting me, Lady."

She immediately let go of his hand, only now realizing she was crushing it. "Shit, sorry."

**SO BABY, LET YOUR CONSCIENCE GO. THERE'S NO TURNING BACK WHEN LOVE TAKES HOLD.**

She looked around the floor, seeing that people were managing to dance with each other and not look like an idiot. She took a breath and closed her eyes, trying to do what the song told her. Minus the love thing. That'd be weird. When she opened them, Ryan was looking down at her worryingly. She stepped from side to side, trying to find the best despite having no rhythm whatsoever, before swaying her hips. He did the same, maybe a little better, as in, not nearly as forced. Okay, they can do this. It'll be okay.

**HOLD ME, BABY. DRIVE ME CRAZY. TOUCH ME, ALL NIGHT LONG**

The lyrics made her laugh because of the situation, her body stumbling forward and into his chest. Wanting to save herself, she reached for his hands and had him spin her. God, this was awkward for everyone. ' _Sorry, Ryan_.' The blonde grinned anyway, pulling her close after another spin before pushing her away, keeping their fingers entwined. They didn't match the song whatsoever, but who was taking this seriously at this point?

* * *

"Did you have fun?" Ian asked once she walked through the door, her heels hanging from her hand.

Lady smiled and nodded. "Yeah... it wasn't really like the movies, I'unno if I'm disappointed or not." She flopped onto the floor before pushing herself up into a sitting position and crossing her legs. Her lower half had been lost to a sea of crinkly, puffy ruffles. "Kaitlin and JB's dress and shit got fucked up though, a couple of girls were apparently throwing drinks at each other or something. But it was fun..."

"You glad you went then?"

"Yeah, I'm glad my first dance wasn't shitty like I thought it was gonna be. 'Cause of before and movies and stuff."

"Good... we need to talk about something...  **Lady! Get the door!** "

Lady blinked. She was back in her room, her new one, in 1993. It was April, not December. Angel Grove, not Cross World City. Her head spun as she made her way out the bedroom door and up the stairs. Christ, how long was she standing there? She thought as she made her way to the door, vaguely wondering what her dad was doing and why he couldn't get the door.

* * *

The door cracked open slightly, the sight of an eye peering out the crack made Billy jump a little. A beat had passed before it opened a little wider, not enough for anyone to see into the house but enough to reveal the figure.

A shorter girl, maybe around Kimberly's height, with waist length black hair tied into two braids. She pushed up her heart-shaped sunglasses, hiding the eyes he had half a glimpse of a moment before. Her skin was a flushed russet brown, looking as if she had just finished a run or she was embarrassed by something. The thing that drew Billy's eye the most besides her choice in eyewear were the two birthmarks above her top lip, where her canines might be. At first glance, someone might've thought they were small piercings, they were either called snake or angel bites. He had to ask someone to make sure.

"Hello! We're your neighbors, we live across the street," said his mother, positively beaming all the while. "I'm Dr. Darla Cranston, this is my husband, Lee, and our son, William."

Billy, unsure of what to do, simply waved before holding out his hand for her to shake. "Salutations, feel free to call me Billy."

The girl just stared at his hand, eyebrows furrowing before she looked behind her into the dark. Billy swallowed before deciding to pull his hand away. Only for the girl to stiffly reach for his hand at the last minute, give it two weak shakes before pulling away. Her motions reminded him of the nearly broken down animatronics he had seen during his ninth birthday. What an evening that had been.

Suddenly, the door opened wider, revealing a tall, attractive man with long dark, braided hair that hung over his right shoulder. His dark eyes widened at the sight of the family, or at least that's what Billy had assumed. It was clear that neither of them was expecting a welcoming committee.

"Hi, can I help you?" the man asked.

"Oh! We're your neighbors across the street, we had just introduced ourselves to your..." This time, it was Billy's father that spoken up, only for him to get cut off by the man.

"Oh fuck. Lady, were you rude to these guys?" He laughed, gripping his daughter on the shoulder and giving her a shake Billy noticed her grimace at the physical contact. "My kid's not the greatest at socializing, I'm afraid. Anyway, I'm Dr. Ian Johnson, and if you haven't guessed, this  _little lady_  here is... Lady."

Lady shut her eyes tight and muttered something under her breath. From her expression alone, Billy could tell that it wasn't a pleasant comment she made. He kept looking at her, looking away every few moments so she wouldn't catch him staring, wondering why she had looked so miserable. The other question on his mind was if this was how the father and daughter normally talked to each other. Or at least, if this how other people's parents talked to their children.

The only times he had heard either of his parents curse was when his mother was upset that his father left the dishes to "soak" again or when his father hit the edge of the table or doorknob. He couldn't imagine actually swearing to his parents in any situation, friendly or otherwise. The day that his mother rushed into the garage after Billy slammed his hip against the corner of the workbench in there and cursed at the pain wasn't something he'd forget. Even six years later.

He watched Dr. Johnson shake hands with both of his parents before her mother clasped her hands together. "I apologize if we're imposing, Dr. Johnson, but in the middle of dinner, we realized that since it was so late when you two arrived in the city, you probably didn't have time for food shopping."

"We also weren't sure if you knew the area well enough to eat out."

Dr. Johnson shot a look at his daughter, who was also shooting a look at him as well. Billy pondered what it could've meant.

"Anyway, what my husband and I are trying to say is, would you like to come over to eat? I also had dessert prepared."

"Unless you two did already eat or you're not feeling it, it's more than alright."

If they did agree, Billy hoped that his parents wouldn't force him to sit through dinner. As rude as it might've sounded. He was anxious to get back to work on the Rad Bug as soon as possible. He had been on a roll before he was called away. He hoped that once he finished the underside, he could begin working on what was under the hood.

"What do you say, Lady?" Dr. Johnson's booming voice had ripped Billy from his thoughts. He glanced at the girl, who simply shrugged. "We'd be honoured, thank you for the invitation."

Grey eyes watched Lady push the tuna casserole all over her plate since Billy clearly had no idea what to do when his parents had him sit down at the table. The three adults had been yammering away about their children, the area and it's climate and their respective professions. The revelation that Dr. Johnson was a palaeontologist, focusing on paleobotany, in particular, had been a fascinating one, yes, but Billy could never get a word in.

"Where are you two from, if I may ask?" asked his mother as she refilled Dr. Johnson's glass.

"We moved here from Cross World City, but we're from Canada actually. This one here," the man smacked Lady on the shoulder, rather hard from the sound of it, making Billy flinch and Lady gag on the casserole she had finally put in her mouth. "Was born in Drumheller, Alberta, but my family's from a little reserve outside of Thompson, Manitoba."

Billy's mother's eyes widened in surprise. "Reserve? Like a reservation?"

"Oh yeah, we're two big Indians, eh."

Lady snorted, her lips curled into a tight smile around the fork in her mouth. It was the first time anyone had seen her smile tonight, at least in the Cranston household.

"That's incredible! My grandmother said that we're part Cherokee ourselves, actually."

There was a pause. And then another one.

Lady dropped her fork. A hand slapped itself over her mouth to keep the food from spilling out. Even from where he was sitting, Billy could hear her muffled giggling. Apparently, her father could as well, since he gently patted her on the shoulder and muttered the words, "C'mon, my girl. Be nice." She then swallowed and sat up straight.

"Was your kookum a Cherokee Princess too?" From the sound of her voice, she was clearly still laughing, but desperately trying to hold it back.

Billy stared down at his feet. Hoo boy, he had always felt awkward whenever his mother told people that, but now it was a little worse now.

"Oh gosh, I'm not sure? What is a... kookum?"

"They wouldn't be called that in Cherokee, I think. It means 'your grandmother' in Cree, however," Dr. Johnson jumped in, while Lady bit down hard on her lip, no doubt fighting back more laughter. "If I were talking about my grandmother, I'd say nohkum, not that this girl pays any attention." He ruffled her hair, which nearly made her fall out of the chair from trying to duck away from him.

"Oh, then, no. My grandmother was only part after all, maybe further back in my family history, perhaps?"

Lady and her father continued to fight back snickers. Clearly, this had to be part of some inside joke that it probably wasn't appropriate for him to ask the meaning. Billy asked to be excused from the table, wanting to get back to work on the Rad Bug. His parents gave each other a look then at Dr. Johnson, who simply laughed and told him that he didn't have to stick around if he didn't want to, which made his parents quickly agree to let him go. He wasn't entirely sure why the man's opinion mattered all too much, but he was grateful that that was the final push.

Half an hour had passed before Billy heard the door to the garage open. To his surprise, it was Lady standing in the doorway holding two plates of cheesecake his mother made earlier. He wiped his face with a mostly clean cloth before walking over to the work desk where she sat on top of and settled one of the plates down.

"Greetings," he said cautiously, wondering if he was going to be dignified with a response this time. "Oh, your hands were full... How did you manage to get the door open?"

"...hi. Your mom asked me to give you a piece." It was a surprise hearing her speak, at least in a casual way. In response to his question, Lady lifted up a leg then let it drop. "Like that."

"Huh," Billy hummed in response, facing away from the workbench and leaning against the edge before he took the plate on it. She did bring it for him after all. "If I'm not imposing, can I ask what sent you and your father into a frenzied cachinnation earlier?"

There was a long pause, longer than when his mother had made that comment. He swallowed thickly, maybe he shouldn't have asked. Or perhaps, she didn't understand what he had said. It wasn't the first time his vocabulary got him in trouble like this.

"Your mom's  _clearly_  fuckin' white, dude..." she started before taking a bite of the cake after a deep sigh. She kicked her legs back and forth as she chewed. "It's just funny is all. Me 'n' my dad... we hear about how everyone's grandma or something was an Indian Princess all the time. They all pick Cherokee for some reason. We get surprised if we hear Navajo or something else. At first, it was really annoying and made me kinda mad, 'cause they're all fuckin' lying probably.  _Or_  if they're part, it's like way back or they're one-sixth or three-eighths Native or something. Like it shouldn't even count, or at least if they're just gonna use it to try to get money or seem cool or something. No plans on trying to fuckin' learn anything about it. And I never knew what the fuck to do after I hear about it, like do I give them a fuckin' fake headdress or something? A fuckin' medal that says  _Honorary Neechie_  on it?" She shovelled another bite into her mouth. "We had to learn to laugh at it though. It got tiring explaining it so we just... kinda laugh and try to keep count, I guess."

"Ah..." Billy wasn't sure if he understood. But, he knew that his mother had been out of line."I apologize on behalf of my mother, she tends to bring it up a strange amount. I can't confirm if anything she's saying is true. My grandmother had passed away before I was born. Regardless, I'd still like to apologize."

She shook her head. "It's okay. She... didn't mean anything from it. Anything bad anyway. My dad is probably talking to her about it right now though. He definitely will if she brings it up again or says something weird though. I think our parents like each other so they'll hang out or something." She had paused, maybe just now realizing how much she was talking. "Whatever... Hey, d'ya mind if I smoke in here? I haven't had one since three or something."

Billy blinked a few times at her request, surprise hitting him like a bus. It backed up over him when she had dug around in the pockets of her dress and pulled out a crinkled pack of cigarettes; a slim package in pink with a rainbow on it, he was sure he had seen a few girls outside the library smoke that brand before. She stared at him expectantly, waiting for the okay to go for it. Words were caught in his mouth. His chest had felt a little tight at the suggestion. Maybe he was overreacting to this, lots of teens his age smoked. He just didn't expect her to. Finally, he shook his head. He simply couldn't allow her to do that, especially here of all places. "I, uh, must ask that you don't smoke in here; there's plenty of flammable materials within in the vicinity and I don't want to r-risk anything. I-I also suggest that you just do not partake in cigarettes around me in general. I have asthma."

"Oh shit, okay, nevermind... Um, what're you doing?" She asked, stuffing the cigarettes back into her pocket. She had taken that a lot better than he had expected, if he had to be honest.

"Oh, this? This is just one of my many projects, though I decided to fixate on it entirely for now. I call it,  _The Rad Bug_." He had sounded quite haughty, he realized. But he was proud of his work and had no intentions of underselling it. There was nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments or plans, in his eyes. "I intend for it to have the ability to fly and to expedite to over three thousand miles within seconds. All while having an unsullied fuel source, which is easier verbally expressed than done, but I'm sure I, or someone else, will discover how to go about it. If someone else does, I'll have to make the correct adjustments for it to be compatible with The Rad Bug."

Lady stared dumbly at the car than at him. He realized he probably lost her somewhere. Where was Trini when he needed him? He rolled his eyes internally. Of course, he knew where she was, she was probably at home packing for her week-long trip with Kimberly to an out of town spa next week.

"Err... To put it simply-"

"It's... It's an old ass Volkswagen. How could, would it do all that? How long would it even take?"

"I intend to have this in working order during the summer, maybe the beginning of academia at the latest. As for how it could, well, the fun part is figuring it out.

"So, you think you can do  _all_ that. In a few months..."

"It's not a matter of me simply just cerebrating it; I know I can. If I just work on it consistently, it'll be up and running in no time."

"You're absolutely fuckin' confident?"

"Affirmative."

"...Cool. Good luck, I guess."

"Much obliged," he said with a smile. Which he thought he had seen her return as Lady stepped down from the table and eyed his plate, which still had cake on it. She then stared at the one in her hand before turning towards the door of the garage. "Where are you going?"

"I'm fucking off for now. You got work to do and I wanna go home." Had he said or done something wrong? "Also, I really need to smoke, so, bye."

"Oh, well, it was nice meeting you, Lady."

Lady didn't respond besides giving him a small nod before taking her plate inside the house, presumably to put it in the sink and head home.

* * *

"How's it goin' in here?" Ian asked, not bothering to knock on the door when he came in.

Lady was lying on the floor, surrounded by the bed frame, while Talking Heads' "I Zimbra" played on a boom box nearby but outside the frame. "Shit sucks."

"The room?"

"Every-fuckin'-thing." She huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Almost everything."

"It'll get better, my girl. I promise."

"Yeah, yeah... whatever. Get my fucking mattress in here, Asshole."

**end**


	2. niso

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left a comment and kudos! It really means a lot :DD. (I mean it, it's not just hollow shit lmfao). This chapter is also kinda wordy, sorry about that. I'm kinda confused about how/why I make these things so long when I have a bad attention span myself :')). Anyway! I hope you like this!
> 
> **Warning for language!!!** The R slur and word c*nt are used in this chapter by a character referring to themselves as such. There is also a scene with bullying, 90s kids movie bullying but still.

The Cranstons had been over a lot. At first, it was during the weekend but soon their visits had spilled into the rest of the week. At least, the parents were there. Billy didn't come over most of the time, Lady didn't necessarily care. She knew he had a goal in mind. His parents dragging him over to her house and forcing him to socialize when he clearly wasn't up for it kept him from completing that goal. Still. If she had to be honest, it wasn't all that bad talking to him. His frustrating way of speaking paired with his intimidating intelligence made things awkward, yeah. But, it was easier to talk to someone your own age rather than super smiley suburban middle-aged couples, she guessed.

Lee, or Mr. Cranston as her dad insisted she'd call him unless given the strict okay by Mr. Cranston himself (" _You know how white folks are_."), had taken it upon himself to help with the heavy lifting after the pros left. It wasn't necessary. At all. It had made things go faster and it was funny to see a scrawny, formally dressed man like that struggle to move the crappy couch downstairs, but it was unnecessary. Darla, or Dr. Cranston, that was  _very_  important, had helped Lady with unpacking the kitchen and her room. The more ladylike jobs. Unpacking her room was frustrating, to say the least. The two of them had different ways of organizing and were anal about them in their own ways. At least Darla knew how to make beds look nice. Real nice.

"Oh, my son likes this band."

Lady blinked before shuffling over to the shelf to see what band Darla was pointing at. She hoped it was Talking Heads. David Byrne and Tina Weymouth were the shit. To her chagrin, it was not. It was Duran Duran. The only reason why Lady owned 'Notorious' was that it was a gift from some cousin at a family Christmas party's Secret Santa from a few years back. It was fine enough, she guessed.

"Oh." Unsure of what to say beyond that, she toyed with the end of her braid.

"And this one too. But, I must admit, I'm not a fan of it. I prefer the other one."

Lady squinted; It was Oingo Boingo. She liked them more than Duran Duran, at least. "How come?"

"Too chaotic."

' _What the fuck. How white is that shit?_ '

"He also has a habit of playing a certain song of theirs over and over again while he works."

Lady smiled. "...Weird Science?" She had said that too hopeful for her taste, but it'd be pretty funny if it was.

"No." Lady frowned, realizing her joke had gone unappreciated. "I don't recall the title... I'm sure I'd know what it was if I heard it. Anyways, your room is finished now, right?"

"O-oh... Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Cranston."

The room was pretty much finished. The bed had looked like a bed rather than the quilt avalanche that would've made up her bed. It looked like a picture in a Sears catalogue; sheets, blankets and bedspread all tucked in nice and tight (so tight that Darla literally bounced a coin off of it), her pillows and Grumpy Bear arranged all nicely. Her dressers were now in the room, all filled with clothes except for the designated 'junk drawer'. As little of it she had, her makeup had been arranged in neat rows on the vanity, or whatever that piece of furniture was called. The shelves were put up, filled and organized to Lady's preference after a one-sided shouting match if she had to be honest.

Genre, Artist, Album, Medium and then all arranged alphabetically with Talking Heads and David Byrne getting a shelf to themselves. Her system might've been fucked when the artist decided to switch genres entirely between albums, but Lady ignored it and kept them under their original genre. Darla had made a comment about Lady having several copies of the same albums. Lady just gave her a look. It was unlikely that she would've understood that it was sometimes just  _necessary_ to have a vinyl, cassette and a CD copy of something.  **Completely necessary**.

While it'd take a while for her room to actually feel like her room, Lady did feel a little more at home. Especially when all the posters, bulletin boards and photos were hung up or placed on her dressers.

"You know that you can call me Darla, Lady. It's alright."

"...'Kay." She was back to playing with the end of her braid. It felt a little weird actually having permission to call her by her name now.

"Have you visited the school yet?"

"No."

"But you're registered, yes?"

Lady shrugged.

"I think your father mentioned something about heading there today, actually!"

"'Kay."

Darla chuckled as she reached out to touch Lady on the shoulder, only for the girl to recoil backwards. She frowned for a moment, unaware that Lady caught it, before forcing a smile. "Well, I'll get out of your hair now. Make sure you're ready to go out for the day, in case your father decides that you're heading out anyway! It's a good idea! While I'm sure that William will help you out on your first day, you should take advantage of exploring the school ahead of time. So you won't get lost and waste time trying to figure out where your classes are!"

Lady shrugged again, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "Mmmm..." was all that she gave as a response.

She guessed that Darla was right; it was almost a tradition for her and her dad in the past. They'd wander around the school after talking to the counsellor or principal, taking note of the weird things about the school. One in Thompson had a carpeted gym floor, another had a mural of Voltron with the words  _ **COEXIST HAPPILY**_  painted on the outside of the second-floor bathrooms and her favourite one being a damn graveyard across the street on the primary side of the school. But, exploring wasn't something that she and Ian did anymore. Why bother? By the time that she would've gotten used to the school and figured out where shit was, Ian would decide that they were gonna move somewhere else.

Darla left the room and basement. The stairs creaking under her step could be heard from the bedroom. Lady shut the door, flicked her wrist on the knob to lock it, though, she wasn't sure how effective the lock really was. She sighed. She should get dressed now, as in clean clothes instead of the t-shirt and sundress she had been wearing for the past two, or was it three, days. How Darla or Lee didn't notice was a mystery. Or, maybe, they did and they just didn't want to be rude.

Her dad didn't care about that. Just this morning he had straight up called her a nasty bitch when he walked in on her making eggs.

_'Shit.'_  That had to have been what Darla meant by 'make sure you're ready to go out!' Damn, that meant showering too.

Lady ripped down a random t-shirt from the closet, a pair of bike shorts from a random drawer along with whatever else she needed before dashing out the room. After freaking out on the doorknob that she forgot she locked just a moment ago.

There was a full bathroom in the basement, something that Lady was absolutely thankful for since both bathrooms at her old house were upstairs. While it was smaller and shabbier than the one upstairs, it did just fine. It was functional. The shower booth worked fine. There was enough space around the sink so she didn't have to worry about knocking shit over.

Yanking off her clothes, Lady wondered what her dad had planned for the day. Was Darla right about them possibly going to the school? Or were they just going to stay home and finish unpacking? She wasn't sure what else needed to be done beyond organizing some things. She yanked out her elastics next, whining as it caught in her hair before working on unravelling her long braids. Her scalp had ached once her black mass of hair was wild and free. As free as greasy, unwashed hair could be, anyway.

When the hot water had hit Lady's skin, she let out a soft moan. The sound itself sounded like the result of a drunken, unprotected one-night stand between a hiss and that high pitched girlish squeal of ecstasy that boys in her seventh-grade class would make out of nowhere to make girls uncomfortable. The water was in that weird grey area where it was between that one nurse's death scene in Halloween 2 and where it felt like the Devil himself was sensually licking up her back. It was hot. Real fucking hot. Not wanting to put up with desperately trying to wash herself after inevitably using up all the hot water, she got to work on her hair which was always a bitch and a half to clean. After the second shampooing and conditioning, her mind began to drift.

" _You alright?" Ryan shouted over the roar of his motorcycle's engine._

_Lady couldn't even respond. Her arms wrapped tighter around her friend's chest. Her fingers desperately trying to get purchase on his leather jacket in an effort to stay on the bike. Her head was buried in his back, or as close as it could be to that since the scooter helmet she wore kept her from really getting in there. Fear, and another feeling that the vibrations gave her that she didn't want to admit to having, rang throughout her body. She wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline or the vibrations that made her feel like she was struck by lightning at least three times. It was probably both._

" _We're almost there, I swear!"_

_'_ Me too _!' The thought had been so loud in her mind that she wasn't sure if she had said it out loud or not. Part of her wanted to laugh, but the rest of her wanted to live. The fear of accidentally letting go and winding up like the afterbirth of roadkill on the concrete all because of a lame cum joke was too great. Because Ryan didn't respond in any way, she assumed that she didn't. Or he just didn't hear her._

_Mercifully, they pulled up to a structure that was oriental in design and stopped. He killed the engine. The sound of silence was almost overwhelming; it drowned out nearly everything that wasn't the buzzing sensation that was wracking her body at the moment._

" _Lady," he whispered. His voice was soft, gentle, basically everything that the whole experience wasn't. She was sure that it would've reduced her knees to jelly under her if they weren't already in that state thanks to the ride. "Let go."_

_Over time, she let go of him and stepped off the bike. Her knees wobbled in between the slow, deliberate but still clumsy steps she made away from the bike. He laughed, making her charge at him with a punch and missed thanks to her arms feeling like cinder blocks. She crashed to the ground and he laughed harder. It sounded melodic, even more so as it echoed through the field._

" _Was it really that bad?" He asked, holding out his hand for her to take._

" _F-_ fuck _..." She said as she took his hand, wobbling wildly once she was on her feet. Lady looked around; there wasn't a whole lot out there besides a few trees and the highway that brought them here. The sound of cars rushing by in the distance, the crashing of waves that old her the sea must be in the distance and the wind that rustled her hair and dress was all that could be heard. She looked at the structure; a low roof supported by strong and sturdy red pillars on top of a concrete platform that had a low fence. Under the roof was... something that she couldn't make out. "Where are we?"_

_Ryan smiled before leading her to the structure and then up the stairs. He gave her hand a soft squeeze, reminding her that they were still touching. Her heart fluttered. She wasn't sure if she wanted to let go. "Before he disappeared, my dad took me here a lot."_

" _Oh."_

_Lady didn't know his dad or a whole lot about him beyond what Ryan told her. He sounded like a wise, kind and overall wonderful person. He was the one that taught Ryan martial arts, origami and just how to be a good person. She didn't know how or why he vanished, but it sounded like Ryan didn't know much either. She couldn't imagine losing someone like that. Let alone losing them and not knowing what had happened._

" _I come here to think."_

" _That's dangerous," she said. The realization that she shouldn't make jokes like that here of all places soon hit her like a bus. "Shit, sorry..."_

_Ryan chuckled, letting go of her hand, making her audibly sigh at the loss of contact. "It's okay."_

_She looked at the building in front of her, taking in the details to distract herself. Under the roof and surrounded by a rope, there was a large bell. It was a dark, almost rusty, green. She guessed that it had been made of copper and the ocean air had turned it green, like the Statue of Liberty apparently had. Designs had been carved into the bell as well. She took a few steps closer to the structure, taking notice of the brilliantly bright colours under the roof itself, different shades of green, blue, orange, yellow and red. Floral designs, swirls and other patterns she didn't really know the name of decorated the uppermost parts of the strong red pillars and the various panels and rafters. It was gorgeous. The sight combined with the echoes of seagulls in the distance made her feel at ease, even as a strong gust of wind whipped past her, making her sundress ripple beside her like a flag._

_As calm and serene as it was here, it seemed to exaggerate the moment of silence between them._

" _I-it's really fuckin' nice here!" She shouted, whipping around to face Ryan. Her voice had made him look up from where he was sitting on the fence. He had looked like he was in deep thought. Or posed like some mysterious, brooding hero would during a heavy part of an action movie. One leg was propped up on the fence, his right arm resting on his knee, other leg on the ground to keep him steady as he stared off into the distance._

_He gave her a smile and signalled her over to the fence. Her heart fluttering, she sat down not quite beside him, more a few inches away from his foot. "I'm really glad that you think so..." He began, a gloved hand running through his blonde locks. "I, uh, I wanted to show you someplace nice."_

" _Y-yeah?" Her heart jumped into her throat, hammering away at her insides so hard that she almost wanted to puke. If she wasn't smiling before, she definitely was now, judging by how much her cheeks ached. A hand raised itself to cover her mouth, but she was sure it did a piss poor job at hiding anything._

" _Yeah... Before you, uh, before you leave." The smiles they were both wearing faltered. Sadness panged loudly inside her chest before worming in between her ribs and blossoming throughout her. "I know you're not going that far, but it still sucks. I feel like we only just got to know each other, y'know? God, I dunno how to say this."_

_Lady blinked before inching a little closer towards him. "Say what...?"_

_Ryan took a deep breath. "I know... I know we haven't known each other that long. Like what? Since September? But, Lady, you mean a lot to me."_

_Her heart stopped._

" _...And the others."_

_And it started back up again. She kept her hand in place, now trying to hide the disappointment that was on her face._

" _This place, uh... This place means a lot to me too. I have so many good memories here. A lot of them. I guess I wanted to... give you a good memory before you leave." He was babbling now. It was weird seeing him like this, seeing him like she was when talking about 'The Outsiders' or Talking Heads. Not that Lady thought it was annoying like she was whenever she did it. He ruffled his hair as he spoke, the few clear words that managed to slip out in between the exasperated noises that fell freely from his mouth. Then, he laughed. "Jeez, what am I saying?"_

" _Ryan," she whispered, unsure if he could even hear her. She didn't want to look at him, or she was too shy to look at him right now. Her shoes and the cracks in the concrete were way easier to stare at, but she could feel the gaze of his pale grey eyes on her. "Cross World City... it's nothing but good memories for me. 'Cause... 'cause of you."_

_There was a long pause._

" _...A-and the others."_

_They both snorted. Now she was doing it too._

" _I just wish that I fuckin' made better use of my time here, y'know? Like I was such a fuckin' bitch to you at first—"_

" _No, you weren't—"_

" _Oh my God, don't fuckin' lie, man. I was a miserable fuckin' bitch and we both know it. I wish... I wish that I could've seen into the future and seen what a great guy you and Kaitlin and JB were right away. Or go back in time and slap some sense into me and tell me to give you guys a chance instead of doing... whatever the fuck it was I was doing. Then we all could've been friends way sooner instead of me being a raging fuckin' cunt for a month while you tried to talk to me at the gym after our argument or whatever in the hallway."_

_Now, words were spilling out of her and onto the ground, pooling around her feet like an awful puddle of vomit. No matter how much her throat and heart clawed at her words, desperate to catch them and yank them back inside the dark recesses of her thoughts. Tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to roll down her cheeks in fat globs as more and more words gushed out of her._

" _I wasted so much fuckin' time for nothing. And when we were all friends finally, after everything I said, everything I did... I didn't know what to fuckin' do, y'know? You guys were the first friends I had in fuckin'... forever. You got me to go to a dance for the first time, take karate lessons and watch that fucking spider movie. All this shit... I would've never ever done on my own. You mean so fucking much to me."_

_She sniffed loudly, her hand moving to wipe her eyes, knocking her sunglasses off in the process. There was a short awful laugh before she clenched her eyes shut. "I... I kn-know.. I know we didn't know each other that long... but..._ Fuck _." She stopped when he had pressed up close to her side. His side was against hers as he swept his arm around her shoulder. Her body turned to stone for a brief moment, only to relax when he hugged her a little tighter._

_He was warm. He was solid. He was here for her._

_Tears spilled from her eyes before a loud hiccup came from her now sore throat. She couldn't continue._

" _Well, I wouldn't use raging... you know, to describe you back then. Miserable? Yes." he said with a laugh. He gently shook her as she wiped her eyes and cheeks. "But like I said when you asked me to the dance, you're stuck with m—us forever. No matter how far you are."_

" _Fuck off, Ryan." She sniffed again before smiling and leaning into his chest as he continued. "Thank you."_

" _No prob."_

The slamming of her dad's fist against the bathroom door woke Lady up, for lack of a better term. The once hot water was now lukewarm. Her jaw had felt tight and her face weirdly sticky despite being under the water. She took a deep, shuddering breath, cringing at how much it had caught on the inhale. ' _Fuck_.'

"You fall asleep in there?" Ian shouted. She could just barely hear him through the rushing water, the shower door and the bathroom door itself. "Get out soon if you want your hair braided before we go, eh?"

Lady immediately rushed to get her body clean and thousand pounds of wet hair as dry as possible once she killed the water. There was no fucking way that she was going to deal with this shit down.

Soon, she was on the living room floor. Her back nearly flush against the couch and in between her dad's knees while he worked a brush then a comb through her thick hair. Fresh tears pricked at her eyes every time it had gotten caught in a knot. Though, even without the pain, she was sure that tears would still be threatening to come out thanks to her episode in the shower.

"I'm sorry, my girl." "It's okay."

Those two sentences were repeated every few minutes until her hair was finally in two neat Dutch braids. While they took longer to do than the two low braids she normally wore, it'd keep her hair better under control.

"Where are we going?" Lady asked as she stood up and straightened out her back and limbs. Only to hunch over once again. She slipped on her sunglasses as he spoke.

"Lunch then to the school," he said as he got up onto his feet. "We gotta go over the classes you want with the counsellor, make sure it's all in order and all that other shit I know you love."

Indeed, she did love all that shit. At all her other schools, she was handed a large book with a list of classes and clubs and a signup sheet. She didn't need to see a guidance counsellor. She knew the song and dance by now. Unless they had taken a special interest in her for whatever reason. That reason either having something to do with Montana or they saw how creepy and sad she was and took pity on her. Which one was worse? Lady wasn't really sure. Both were fucking terrible in their own way. "Oh."

"Then, we're gonna get groceries. I know you can live off of Ichiban but we're running low on that shit too, " he said with a laugh, ruffling her damp hair. "That alright with you?"

Her lips curled into a smile. "Yeah."

* * *

Angel Grove High School was big.  _Much_ bigger than her school in Cross World City, despite Cross World seemingly dwarfing Angel Grove in size and population. Maybe it was because this was the only public school in the city? The other school, at least to Lady's knowledge, was a Catholic one. She was explicit with her dad about not wanting to go to Catholic school.

Again.

"Wasn't planning on it, my girl."

As the two made their way through the identical halls of the school, desperately trying to figure out the mind-bending directions to the Student Services the secretary gave them, Lady wondered how big the other school was. Were they the same size, give or take a few square feet? Did they have uniforms? If she went there instead, would it's identical halls be instead full of students in burgundy and wheat-gold plaid with ' _PRAISE JESUS_ ' on the walls?

"Save the observatory!"

"Please sign the petition to get city hall to give the observatory more funding!"

"It really needs our help, you guys!"

Lady stared at the two girls standing in the hall next to a display; a short white girl with shoulder-length chestnut hair that wore washed-out pastels and a taller Asian girl with long stark black hair and a penchant for yellow. The one in pink swerved in front of her after shoving a flyer into Lady's hands. Her blood ran cold as the girl's brown eyes flashed almost dangerously as she bounced in her spot.

"Hi! Can we count on you two signing the petition to save the observatory?! Like, every little bit counts! Whether it's a donation," she said as she leaned to the side, pulled out an ice cream pail from the desk in front of the display showing pictures, the history and services of the observatory. She held it up just beside her head and gave it a quick shake, the sound of coins rattling inside " _Oooor._.. a signature! Of course, it'd be, like, totally rad if you did both!"

Lady threw a glance towards her dad before mouthing the words 'What the fuck.' Her hands didn't know where to go, around herself, the nape of her neck or trying to fidget with the hem of her shirt. Her mouth felt dry, her indecisive hands shaky and breath a little heavier.

Ian didn't respond, instead going for his wallet. "It's always great to see kids helping out. It shows a lot of initiative, especially you, Miss..."

"Kimberly Ann Hart! And this is Trini! We're both, like, really into helping the community. Because it's like... Like how is the world gonna get better if we don't do something, you know?" Kimberly said with a smile. Her voice was bubbly, reminding Lady of an overflowing bottle of diet pop. It was frothy, sickeningly sweet and artificial. The smile on the girl's face widened when Ian slipped a ten dollar bill into the ice cream pail. "Ohmigosh, thanks! Would you mind signing our petition? Trini, hand over the petition!"

Trini chuckled as she handed Kimberly the clipboard over Lady's head. "Kim, you might be being a little too forceful..."

Kim hummed as she handed the board to Ian who then handed it to Lady. "Well! It worked here, didn't it? Thank you guys so much!"

Lady grunted as she scribbled her name down on the page so hard that it nearly ripped under the pressure. She shoved the clipboard into Kim's hands, ignoring how wide her eyes had gotten, before trying to move around her. Her dad's hand reached out and gripped her on the shoulder, effectively keeping her in place. She groaned. "No problem. Hey, would you girls know where Student Services is? The lady at the front was kinda worthless at giving directions, eh."

Trini smiled. "I'd be willing to take you guys there, if you'd like, oh... But Kim, would you be—" She trailed off as she turned towards her friend who was currently hounding a group of teens. "Well, it looks like she'd be okay on her own for a bit. I'll take you guys there."

The girl lead them down the hallways where they came from, making Lady feel like an idiot for missing the giant arrow-shaped sign that read  **STUDENT SERVICES**. If Trini had thought they were stupid for missing the sign, she certainly didn't show it. Instead, she seemed genuinely happy to help them out with navigating the school.

"Are you transferring in?" she asked, slowing down so that Lady would be beside her.

"...Y-yeah," Lady muttered, slowing down further so she wouldn't be beside Trini. ' _Isn't that obvious?_ '

"That's awesome! Angel Grove High is a great school; the teachers here really do care about what they're teaching and are super helpful. The students here are also pretty great too, we all work hard to make sure the school and the city is a better place with all the charity events. Most of them are a success too. There's also a lot of clubs if you're looking for something to do after class. Kim and I are in a few, so you might see us around if you join any."

Her voice was friendly and gentle, making Lady feel weird. It wasn't like Kimberly's pushy energy, but it was still too much. She was only doing it because she was new.

"If you ever need help with anything, you can talk to me. Being new in school can be pretty rough, especially this late in the year."

"...'Kay."

Trini gave her a weak smile before stopping in front of a door at the end of the hall. Finally, here it was, Student Services. "Well, it was really nice meeting you both. I better get back to Kim." She turned towards Lady. "I'll be seeing you around...?"

"Lady definitely will, thank you, Trini," Ian said as he opened the door. Trini's smile widened as she jogged down the hall after giving them both a gentle wave. "She seems nice, maybe you and her can hang out whenever Billy's busy, eh?"

" _ **Ugh**_."

* * *

"Okay, you're all set and ready to go, Lady! It may be a bit difficult catching up, but your teachers for your core classes will be aware of what's going on once the break is over in two weeks. If you have any trouble, trouble about anything..."

Ian looked over at his daughter, noticing how her eyebrows furrowed forward and her fingers twisting themselves in her shirt. They twisted and writhed around so much that he wondered how they all didn't break or at least become dislocated. He looked away, the sound of her sighing deeply made his heart ache. As accommodating and friendly as the guidance counsellor, an older white woman named Barbara Gibson, was, she sure laid the fairy godmother act on  _thick_.

"You come on down whenever you like, alright? I need to talk to your dad about something, so why don't you look around the school? If not, you can just sit in the waiting room, though, I can't imagine how much fun that'd be," she said with a laugh.

Lady huffed, getting out of the chair and out of the room, the door shutting behind her too hard. Ian snorted when he heard her mutter a soft ' _Oh fuck_.'

Barbara's smile faded before she sat up straight and pulled her chair closer to the desk that was covered with photos of what was either relatives or past students. There was one that he could see tucked beside the IBM that had Lady's record on it; a small picture that had a picture of some Native youth in what he assumed was local traditional regalia in a crudely painted frame and had stickers on the corners. His eyes flickered from the photo to the computer screen and then finally to the old woman.

"What's up?" He finally asked.

"There's an incident that I want to talk about in particular."

His body went cold. A stone, reminding him of the times he had touched water that was so hot that it felt ice cold, dropped in his stomach.

"I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about, Dr. Johnson?"

"Ah, yeah, the one in Montana, right?"

Barbara nodded. "It doesn't go into detail on her record, but, I wanted to hear the story."

"Well... She pushed a girl down the stairs and there was an agreement. The parents said they'd drop charges if she was expelled. I'm not really sure what else there is to say." He shrugged before slouching in his seat. A hand went to run through his hair, only to get caught in the beginning of his braid. He bit his lip, glancing at the door and swearing he saw her silhouette through the blinds of the window. He blinked, and it was gone. "The story is..."

* * *

Lady shuffled out of the Student Services area, her heart pounding at what she had heard.  _They were talking about her._   _They were talking about_   _ **Montana**_. Her sneakers smacked against the smooth tile as she ran down the hall. A voice in her head told her to stop and slow down before she got any shit from staff or a hall monitor, even though she had never seen one in her life outside of movies. She ignored it. She wasn't officially a student here yet. School didn't start for her for two weeks. What's the worst they could do? Throw her in detention for the whole afternoon?

The halls were empty, save for a few people coming and going from the bathrooms or the library. Lunch hour had ended half an hour ago, so everyone was either in class or ducking out somewhere for a spare period or simply skipping classes.

She had no idea where she was going. She just wanted to get away from that conversation. To get away as far as possible.

Fate had led her to the gym. It was full of people. Students and a few teachers actually participating in class while the others were sitting on the bleachers observing or in the balcony above the gym. She ducked down, hoping to avoid the gaze of gym teachers who'd ask what she was doing here or stray basketballs that might come flying into her face, before heading up a staircase that led to the balcony. Once she was up there, it was clear that the kids up here were here to skip and not be discovered. Everyone up here looked like the stereotypical bullies that old white executives thought bullies had looked like and crammed them into the kids show they were meddling in. Either these kids were simply trying way too hard to be intimidating and tough looking or those TV shows and high school movies Lady had seen were actually right. Regardless, Lady didn't want to find out which was correct. So, she kept to the edges of the area in an effort to not bother anyone. She settled for the corner closest to the staircase and up against the banister.

"Heya, Bulkie, check this out."

Lady looked up to see a pair of boys, one slightly taller and skinny that was decked out in at least three different types of punk and the other much bigger in girth that dressed simpler, leaning over the banister. The skinny one leaned over the banister so far that he was nearly half off of it, snorted and spat down onto the bleachers. Lady cringed. The loogie dived downward like a vile meteor out to destroy everything in its path. And the only thing in its path was a nerd in a Duran Duran concert t-shirt. It landed right beside him, maybe an inch or so away, Lady couldn't tell from up here. But, she could tell that it must've splashed onto him because he got up from his seat and yelled.

"That's disgusting!" The big one yelled before turning towards his friend, she couldn't see his expression but she could tell that it must have had a wide smile. " _Do it again_."

The skinny one laughed, reminding her of a hyena and afternoons at her Jaban's house when her Kookum, Jaban and aunties were all together and laughing loudly in Cree. It was loud. The acoustics in the gym made it even worse. The sound made her grip her chest in shock and to keep her heart from leaping out of her chest. He leaned forward once again and spat another wad. The nerd had been looking up, most likely to get a look at the culprit or to see where that awful sound was coming from.

The spit landed right onto his face. The two bullies howled in delight. The bigger one raised his hand for a high five, which the skinny one went for but missed and nearly fell off of the balcony.

"TAKE THAT, CRANSTON!" shouted the fat one as he yanked his smaller friend to safety.

"YEAH, GEEK! THERE'S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!"

Cranston. Duran Duran.  _Geek_.

Lady dashed forward to get a better look, her head spinning from how fast she moved and just how high up she was.

There was Billy Cranston, decked out in the concert tee and blue short shorts, glaring hard at the duo. He swiped his hand over his face in an attempt to fling off the saliva and God Knows What Else but was most likely just smearing it around. In the process, he slipped on the surface and tumbled down the bleachers. That had made the bullies laugh even harder, the echoing sound making Lady grind her teeth. Her hands twitched as she tried to keep them from slamming against her ears. She stared at the ground below her in an attempt to distract her from the noise, settling on the sight of two classmates running towards Billy and helping him up.

' _Jesus, poor guy..._ '

" **WILL LADY JOHNSON PLEASE COME DOWN TO THE MAIN OFFICE. LADY JOHNSON, MAIN OFFICE. THANK YOU**."

Her skeleton nearly jumped out of her flesh and ran into the horizon at the blaring announcement. The woman's loud, nasally and droning voice, the booming volume and the crackling static of the intercom had sounded like a god damn car crash. Lady drove her wrists to her ears and squeezed her head so tightly that the others must've thought she was trying to make her eyes pop out of the sockets. The pain she was dealing to herself was nothing compared to the noise. Her heart hammered inside her chest, the sound drowning out the curse words that crashed down from her lips. Her throat felt sore. Was she yelling? Shit. Shit. Shit.

At some point, she had dropped down to her knees as she tried to calm down from the overload. God, she wished she had her Walkman. If only David Byrne was here and his almost anxiety-inducing vocals could drown out the snickering which she knew was going on. Then, he could lull her into a false sense of security;  _no_ , no one had seen or heard anything.  _No_ , people didn't think you were a fucking retard.  _No_ , your mom wasn't right.  _Yes_ , I would totally sing at your prom and look I brought your friends from Cross World City.  _It'll all be okay, Lady_.

Lady breathed in deeply. It was okay, she was okay. She opened her eyes, her sunglasses thankfully blocking out some of the harsh fluorescent lighting above her. It was okay, she was okay. Slowly, she rose to her feet, brushed off her knees and tried to ignore the stares as she headed down the stairs. It was okay, she was okay. Her face felt like it was on fire, her own hands splaying all over it making it worse, as she made her way out of the gym.

On her way out, she had collided into someone and they said something to her, but she couldn't hear. She needed to go. She needed to leave. It was okay, she was okay.

_It was okay, she was okay._

* * *

"H-hey, Lady..." Billy spluttered as he righted himself upwards after she had crashed into him. "I wasn't aware that you had already commenced with attending school! Are you finding everything satisfactory? Oh, are you alright yourself? you appear to be quite discombobulated and agitated—"

"It's okay, I'm okay. It's okay, I'm okay. It's okay, I'm okay. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was..."

He blinked when his neighbour had ignored him and just kept wandering down the hall, muttering to herself. It was quite clear that she was not okay. He pushed up his glasses with his free hand, the other pressing an ice pack to his forehead, as he watched her go.

* * *

"Holy fuck, there you are, my girl," said Ian once she had stepped into the office. He went to smack her playfully on the back but stopped, seeing how she frazzled she looked. Even behind her dark lenses and thick frames, he could see how wide and blank her hazel eyes were. Small red indents about the same width as her fingernails decorated her forehead. If she wasn't also breathing deeply and erratically, he would've known something was up. Quietly, he led her out of the building and into the truck, even going so far as to open and close the door for her. Once they were out of the school parking lot and on their way to the grocery store, he decided to speak. "You get a good feel of the place?"

She sat there in a tense silence, her eyebrows furrowed closely together and lips pressed into a hard line as she stewed in her feelings. Several minutes had passed before she spoke, "Can we put on Talking Heads— _fuck it_ , can I have a smoke too?!"

Ian looked at her again before giving her a slow nod, deciding to not press her on anything. She reached for the handle to the glove box, pulled out her dad's copy of 'Stop Making Sense' then a pack of Marlboros and a lighter he had stashed. She slid out a cigarette from the pack and lit it up before rushing to crank the window open before taking a long drag. It had felt almost hot as she inhaled but it calmed her nerves almost immediately. Her head had felt light and empty. Anxieties about how much of an ass she might've looked were gone for the moment. Slouching, she slid the tape into the player and turned up the volume, the opening to the live version of Psycho Killer now filling the vehicle.

**end**


	3. nisto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this chapter done for a while but... uh... I hoarded it for some reason. Anyway! I'm super sorry about the delay! I have a love-hate relationship with this chapter because one hand? I really like the character interaction, other hand... I kinda think it's really same-y and I feel like people won't like the direction I'm going with a canon character :'). I'm hoping to develop it more in future stuff, motivation permitting anyway, but y'know. 
> 
>  
> 
> **Thank you everyone that has read this story, left kudos and/or comment! It means the world to me!**

 

 

**Nisto**

It had been a few days since Lady had been to the school on Tuesday. It was now Friday. Her mind kept drifting to that moment on the gym balcony. The ear-splitting announcement. The looks that people gave her as she did the walk of shame out of there. How she was  _sure_  that she heard people snickering over her name or her tantrum. She was pissed. Pissed at them, pissed at the situation and pissed at herself.

Why did that have to happen? Why did she have to react that way to a sound? Why did she have to do it in front of people? Why did it have to happen in front of the tryhards that looked like they were auditioning for 'The Lost Boys' sequel?

The thought of these guys recognizing her in the halls and calling her names, along with other shit, there was always other shit, made her feel cold. Someone might as well have dumped ice water down her back with how jittery she felt. Why did she have to be such a fucking spazz when it came to this kind of shit?

She took a deep breath. Inhale then exhale for eight seconds. In, out, in, out, in and then out, like how she imagined a bad prom date.

Okay, it wouldn't be so bad. Even if she was stupid and couldn't handle stuff over an intercom—unless she knew it was coming, like the daily announcements, it'd be fine! It'd also be fine if she did all the other stupid things that bullies in the past noticed then used against her. It wasn't like there was a limited quantity of kids just asking to be shoved into a locker or anything here.

An image of Billy popped into her mind.

No. What was she thinking?

That wasn't cool or okay in the slightest of her to think like that. Even if it was true, judging by how Billy was hassled that day in the gym by those two guys. It wasn't cool. What kind of person hoped that there'd be even bigger losers than her to bully? Guilt twisted itself in Lady's stomach as she walked into the building. She shouldn't think like that. She shouldn't think that some kids deserved it. Did people in the past think she deserved it? Did Amanda Myers and her bitch friends think so?

' _Fucking bitch_ ,' she thought, as she and her father walked into the main office.

"Hey, ah, we came here earlier in the week. We were wonderin' if we could take a look at the school, so  _this one_  doesn't get too lost on her first day after the break. Do you guys have visitor passes or are we shit outta luck?" Ian asked with a laugh, patting her on the shoulder. She didn't even realize it until she caught a glance of it in the corner of her eye. She wriggled out of the feather-light grip and took two steps to the side.

"You guys didn't get the tour when you were here?" asked the secretary. Her voice was high pitched and nasally, though, even with her East Coast accent, it wasn't annoying. She blew a bubble with the gum she was chewing, popping it with her finger before swirling it around her finger. Lady wondered if she was  _really_  good at her job to not get in shit for acting this way or if she  _didn't give a damn_.

"This one." Lady could feel her dad pointing at her with his lips before he continued. "Walked around for a bit when we were here to see Ms. Gibson. But, I dunno what she did the whole time though."

With a roll of her eyes, the secretary gave them a nod before rolling her chair to the left and opening a drawer. From this angle, Lady couldn't see the contents of it, but it was clear when she pulled out two lanyards and a stack of pink slips. The woman asked her father a few questions, most of them making him repeat what he had said earlier. It was likely out of habit or standard procedure, but, fuck if it wasn't annoying. It made them stay here longer. The secretary took her time filling out the passes. She then told them that she needed to get a Mr. Caplan to sign them before pushing a button on the desk. "Mr. Caplan, I need you to sign in these two visitors. They want to take a tour of the school or something."

Lady snorted.

Soon, an old white man stepped out of an office behind the secretary's desk. He wasn't as old as the guidance counsellor she saw the other day, but he was up there. Older than her dad for sure. His hair was 'thinning', as men in denial about their hair loss would say. The only reason why she noticed was that his wig was askew. He huffed as he stepped up to the desk, took a look at the paperwork and then at her and Ian.

"I assume that you're Lady? We haven't had the chance to meet, but I met your father the other day. I'm sure that you'll find Angel Grove High to be an upstanding institution. Give or take a few  _hooligans_  and  _delinquents_ , but, I'm sure that  _you_  won't give us any trouble."

The way he had talked down to her felt like a sucker punch. What was that supposed to mean? Was she a delinquent in his eyes? Was it sarcasm? Was it a jab at what happened in Montana? Regardless of what it was, Caplan was on her shit list. Not that it mattered.

"Here you are. Normally, we'd have a student from the Welcoming Committee here to show you around. But this is rather last minute. I'm quite busy—"

The door behind Lady swung open. In stepped, or danced to be more accurate, a Black boy about her age, all decked out in black, red, and purple. Gracefully, he twirled around Lady on his way to the desk.

" _Helloooo Janine_. I must say, you look ravishing this morning," he said, a wide smile appearing on his lips as he leaned on the desk. Mr. Caplan coughed, making the boy jump to his feet and shot up straight as a line. "M-Mis...Mr. Caplan! Hey! How're you doing this fine Friday morning? Love the new hair, did you do something new with it?"

His voice a few moments ago had sounded like it belonged to a wannabe Casanova. Now, he sounded like a scared boy meeting his prom date's parents. She snorted at the sudden change.

"Mr. Taylor, dare I ask why you're nearly fifteen minutes late for first period?"

Mr. Taylor squirmed in his spot as he sucked on his teeth. "Ah hah, well..." He began, his hand touching the back of his neck as he tried to find an excuse. "Well, the important thing is that I'm here now, isn't it?"

Lady bit her lip, trying not to laugh. He didn't have an excuse that would please Mr. Caplan, if he had one at all.

"I suppose, but just because it's the last day before the break, doesn't excuse tardiness, Zachary. Get your behind in class right now. Every minute you're here is another ten minutes in detention!"

Zack ripped the late slip that Janine was waving right out of her hand and made a dash for the door. "Y-yes sir, right away—"

"Wait a moment, Zack," said Mr. Caplan. The boy whined. He whipped to the principal as he tried to hide that he was now desperate to get to class with a wide smile. "You're on the welcoming committee, aren't you?"

"Y-yes, I am."

"Good, it's decided then. You will take Miss Johnson and her father on a tour around campus," said the man as he turned to get back into his office.

"But sir, what about..." The door had slammed shut behind Mr. Caplan, making Lady cringe. "My class..."

"Don't worry, Zack. I'll exempt you from the next two periods and pass the message to your teachers. Make sure you get your homework from them at the end of the day, alright?" Janine said, punctuating the end of her spiel with a loud pop of her bubblegum. She scribbled something down then handed it to him. Lady had no idea what it was. A hall pass? Oh God.  _Were there hall monitors here after all?_  "Make sure you're on time for third period."

With one of the most sparkling smiles Lady had ever seen, Zack danced his way to the desk for the second time that morning and took the hall pass. Turning towards Lady, he clapped his hands together before rubbing them together.

"Hey, as you might already know, I am Zack Taylor and I," he said with a bow, flinging one arm out beside him in a dramatic fashion. "Will be your guide. Welcome to Angel Grove High."

Lady shot a look at her dad, who didn't look back at her. He snorted before giving Zack a low whistle. "Nice to meetcha, Zack Attack. This is Lady, she's gonna be starting after the break." With that, he opened the door to the main foyer and signalled for the others to step outside. Lady dashed out of there with Zack close behind her.

"Alright, I'm gonna be honest. I'm kinda a new member of the committee, so, this is my first time on my own. Why don't I show you guys the main areas of the school? Then show you where your classes are if you have your schedule already?" Zack asked, tilting his head to the side.

Lady shrugged.

"That sounds perfect. Hey, y'know what? You guys got this under control," said Ian. He reached over and ruffled Lady's hair as she shot him a look. What was he doing? "So, I'll leave it to you, Zack, and get out of your guys' hair. Call me when your tour's done, Little Lady."

Her eyes bulged out of their sockets, they could've popped the lenses out of her sunglasses, as she watched her dad leave. Right before he walked out the door, he spun on his heel and shot the pair a couple of finger guns. Grimacing the hardest she ever had in this godforsaken life of hers, Lady gave the most awkward and forced thumbs up that Zack had ever seen.

"Yeah! That's the spirit!"

" _ **FUCKER**_ ," Lady spat once her dad had left the building. Her hands jumped to the sides of her head as she screamed internally. ' _What! The! Fuck!_ ' Was this another weird attempt of his to get her to make friends?! This shit was  _not_  gonna fly. She had to get back at him. Pissing in his coffee maker while he was asleep sounded like a good idea.

Zack coughed. "Your dad seems cool."

" **He isn't**."

He laughed before gesturing to what she guessed was the main hallway. "Well, why don't we get a move on? Oh, hey, do you mind if we head to the cafeteria first? I slept in and didn't really get a chance to eat, so..."

Lady shrugged as she went for the ends of her braids and let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, okay."

With that, they made their way through the halls, weaving between students and faculty that wandered the halls. Zack was pretty talkative. Lady wasn't sure if she appreciated it. Most of his questions were stuff she didn't feel like answering. Even then, he had an infectious energy. It shocked her that he managed to get her to loosen up a little, something that Trini or whatever-her-name-was failed to do. As nice as she was. Zack didn't treat her like she was made of glass and walk on eggshells around her or talk to her like a scared baby deer. She tried too hard, not that there was anything wrong with that, Lady guessed. It only called attention to how new she was and rubbed it in her face.

It didn't take long for Lady to realize how cramped the school was. Claustrophobic even. Narrow hallways blended into each other. The same posters and displays seemed to repeat like the backgrounds on Hanna-Barbera cartoons. It was conflicting. It was both huge and too fucking small. Angel Grove High's never-ending hallways were a maze of what high school was about; algebra,  _possibly_  bad food and infidelity. If that argument between a couple she and Zack passed by told her anything. The building also reeked of Teen Spirit, strawberry-scented to be exact. It was soon overpowered by the smell of yeast and burnt toast when they passed the Home Ec. department, however.

The cafeteria was a welcome change by the time they got there. The area was open, the number of windows that let in a lot of natural light that helped the space. There were a few students at the tables. Some where surrounded by books as they tried to drill last minute information into their brain. Some were talking to each other in small groups. Some were plain passed the fuck out on the table.

"Hey, do you want anything? It'll be my treat!"

Lady blinked when Zack spoke. She shook her head. "Um... no, it's, uh, it's okay."

"You sure?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Alright... but you're missing out, it's not every day I offer to treat people," Zack said with a smile. "You don't have to tag along if you don't wanna, so you can find a table. I can tell you whatever you wanna know while I eat if that's okay with you."

"'Kay..." Lady mumbled. Her hand hid the small smile on her lips, before finding an empty table by the outdoor entrance. There were tables outside too, it seemed. It looked lovely, with all the trees and well-maintained garden. Maybe she could hide out there between classes, weather permitting.

A hand had slammed down in front of her, rattling her to the core. Her eyes stayed glued to the hand in front of her. Her own hands twisted themselves in the hem of her short overalls. She held her breath, trying not to focus on how hard her heart hammered inside.

"You're in our seats,  _ **Spazz**_."

With hesitation, Lady's gaze rose from the pale, so pale that it was almost translucent, hand in front of her. At the end of the table was a blonde girl. She was tall, or only appeared that way because of the angle and that Lady herself was only five foot two, and slim. Her platinum blonde hair was frizzy. So frizzy that it must've taken hours in front of the mirror to tease it to get it to that volume. It also required at least two full cans of hairspray, judging by how she reeked of it. Behind her were the two boys that had been picking on Billy the other day.

**Shit.**

"I, uh..."

" _Ummm_...  _I-I_...  _I_... _uhhhh_ ," the girl mocked, her head tilting from side to side with every forced stutter. Her voice had also jumped several octaves. Even though that wasn't how Lady sounded. She knew she didn't. There was another slam on the table. "Get up and move already, Spazz! Or do I gotta drag you out of here by these?"

Her scrawny hand grabbed one of Lady's braids and gave it a sharp enough tug to yank off the elastic. Lady yanked herself backwards as she stood up, the chair clattering behind her. She bit down the urge to cover her ears. She couldn't give her more fuel to use against her. "Fuck off!"

"Awwww look, she can talk after all!" The blonde laughed, the two boys behind her joining in."Too bad she has trouble listening. Get out of here already!" The girl hissed, reaching for Lady once again.

Swiftly, Lady dodged, the hand brushing against her denim romper. She took a quick, deep breath before lunging at the blonde's wrist and squeezing it tight. The sound of the joint cracking under the pressure echoed through the tense air. Lady's heart was pounding. Oh God, why did she do that?! What the fuck was her plan from here?

Boiling hot anger and bitter cold anxiety duked it out inside her. Her stomach churned while her mind raced to figure out what to do. She didn't know what to do. She had no fucking clue. Her grip got tighter. The only sound she could hear was her deafening heartbeat. It rattled her like the windows of a shitty old car with the worst bass in existence. Fear was winning the fight. She stared up at the girl, noticing her panicked expression as she tried to free herself. It morphed into a nasty glare when she noticed that Lady was staring.

Bleach blonde hair darkened to an ash brown. Wild frizz flattening itself into smooth silk that cascaded down her shoulders. Pale translucent skin browning to a light tan with dozens of sunspots. Lady froze. Bile rose in her chest and threatened to spew out. She swallowed it back. The burning sensation awakening that white-hot anger that roared a few moments ago.

She jerked the girl close to her, her grip tightening so much that her own hand shook and the joints turned white. It almost hurt to hold her. The bully shrieked as she jerked her arm away, only to be stuck where she was.

"You ever fuckin' talk to me like that again, I'll snap your fucking legs in half," Lady hissed. Her jaw clenched as she dug her jagged nails into the pale flesh. "I'll also tear out your fucking hair if you ever touch mine again!

"Jesus fucking Christ! Let go of me you fucking freak!"

Lady blinked, realizing what the fuck was happening before dropping the girl's hand. She stumbled backwards and dropped into the chair behind her. Her eyes flickered to the two boys, whose faces drained of all colour. Their eyes were so wide that they must've seen a ghost. Then she looked back at the girl who sneered at her while rubbing the bruised flesh, "All talk and no show, huh? You better watch yourself, Spazz."

The trio headed out the door, the fat one trying to slam it behind him, only for the door closer to slow it down to a snail's pace. Relief and nausea washed over her as she touched her face that was slick with sweat. She grimaced. She didn't know she was sweating.

' _What the fuck was that all about_?'

Zack finally came back to the table. "Oh my God, are you okay?! I saw those three hassling you! When she reached for you, I froze. Normally they don't do anything. I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"Um... Yeah. It's okay, I guess. Yeah."

"Did they do anything else? Did they say anything? You sure you're okay?"

"Not really... No, I mean, I'm fine. Don't... Don't worry about it."

"Okay, well, don't mind those guys. Bulk and Skull are harmless, most of the time. They think that they're all that but karma usually knocks 'em down right after. They're more of a danger to themselves than anything. Sharkie though..." Zack started before getting cut off.

"Which is which?" She had a slight idea of which one was Bulk and Skull, but she had to be sure. What if it was the opposite of what she thought? Like Bulk was the skinny one to be ironic.

There was a faint smile on his lips. "You probably already guessed but, the big guy is Bulk. He's the 'leader' I guess, but he's best friends with Skull, the other punk. I've known them since grade school. They were always jerks but like I said, they're harmless. Sharkie though... Well, you met her. I think they all met up in freshman year. She doesn't like my friend, Kim, too much."

Kim? Like that pushy girl with the flyers on Tuesday? Nah, it couldn't be. It was a big school and Kim was a popular name. Not everyone had parents that hated them and gave them stupid names like Lady did.

"I don't know Sharkie all that well. Now, I love the ladies," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows. She gave him a roll of the eyes in return, though she wasn't sure if he saw it through her glasses. "But Sharkie? She's... kinda scary. You know all about that. But, you managed to scare her off somehow, I  _almost_  don't wanna know how you did it."

Lady bit her lip. She didn't know how or why she did it. By some weird, awful and angry miracle, she managed to get a would-be bully to back off. Somehow.

"Um, tell me about what else goes on here," she said, pushing her anxieties to the back of her mind.

Zack smiled. "Alright. So Angel Grove has a lot going on. There's always something happening. So don't feel bad if you miss something because there's always something new around the corner. Don't feel like you're missin' out if you don't make it for the... Uh... I dunno, Sky Dive for Orphan Puppies event."

"...I-is that a real thing?"

He laughed before taking a bite of his sandwich. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. But with all the stuff that happens here, they're bound to run outta ideas one day. Maybe it will be one day. Anyway..."

The boy trailed off, going on about some of the things he had done with his friends. One of them being an ATV Race of all things. She wasn't sure how that worked. Did they all have their licenses in this school already?

She bit the inside of her cheek when he told her all about that. Ryan and the guys had made fun of her for not even wanting to join Driver's Ed back in Cross World City. Her nervousness went away once he went on about all the extracurriculars that the school ran, along with the classes at the Youth Center. He also took a moment to  _subtly_  advertise and hint that she should join his 'Hip Hop Kido' class.

"If you like to dance and wanna learn some martial arts... I gotta say, my class is the place to be."

"Don't listen to this jokester, my class is the one to be if you wanna learn the real basics of martial arts."

Lady jumped when a third voice joined in the one-sided conversation. She looked up. There was a white guy in the  _ugliest track pants she saw in her life_  and a red cotton scrap that she  _guessed_  qualified as a tank top. He smiled before running a hand through his dark brown hair.

"Aw, c'mon Jase. You know your classes are maxed out. Let me have this one, please."

"Nah. Not possible, Zack Man."

Zack made a show of rolling his eyes. "Whatever, man. Hey, Lady, this is my best friend, Jason. Jason Lee Scott, meet Miss Lady Johnson."

Jason snorted at her name. The nervous smile that Lady had realized she was wearing fell. "Hey, nice to meet you. Sorry about spooking you earlier," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.

Blankly, she stared at the hand then up at him. The boy coughed as his confidence melted under her gaze. Finally, she reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed tight. "It's fine."

Once his hand was free, Jason let out a small wince as he shook his hand in the air. "Wicked grip there, Lady. Pretty sure it'd make my dad cry. Anyway, you on welcoming duties this morning, man?"

The two friends began to yammer on about their plans for after school and then the break. It didn't take long for Lady to zone out. Their conversation turning into background music then to loud static. Kind of like when she would try to watch movies late at night and she put in the rare tape that hadn't been rewound and everyone in a three block radius was greeted with the sound of static. Her jaw clenched tight. Her nails dug into her palms. Her chest had felt heavy and tight while heat swirled inside of her. She wanted to go home, or rather, back to her house.  _Home_  was six hours away. The sooner they finished this dinky tour, the better.

"Can we go now?"

The two boys shared a look before shrugging. "I gotta head back to class anyway, I only left to get a drink. Freigo's probably wondering where the hell I am right now," Jason chuckled.

"Hey, we all still meeting up at Ernie's later?"

Jason had already started walking away at this point. He spun on his heel and spread his arms open wide and wore a grin to match. "Same as always!"

"Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was," Lady murmured.

"Hey, why don't I finally get around to showing you around now?"

She nodded, her hands going for her braids once again. The familiar bumps of her hair tie weren't there. She ran her fingers over the end of it a few more times to confirm.  _Right, that psycho from earlier ripped it off_. As Zack got out of his seat, Lady dived to the floor and scanned the floor for the elastic. She did her best to ignore his puzzled gaze while she crawled around on the dirty cafeteria floor. ' _Whoever cleans this fucking place is paid too much_ ', she thought.

After a minute of looking around, she gave up with an angry sigh. It was lost to the void.

* * *

The period had gone by fast, as did the next one. Zack enjoyed himself, even though he had some reservations at first. Hell, he had only joined the Welcoming Committee because Angela was a member. He wanted to take the chance to get closer to her. It also helped when Trini, one of the founding members, had suggested joining to him. He had to agree, she had a lot of great ideas.

Lady was quiet. That was the understatement of the century, he knew. She was also weird to talk to. Her voice was flat with an edge to the painfully short answers she'd shoot back at him. The nasty look on her face the entire tour didn't help matters either. But, he had to guess that that was just how her face looked. It wasn't something he could relate to himself. He had been told he had an honest face,  _whatever that meant_.

But his best friend, Jason, could. Every day, he was mistaken annoyed and emotionless by people that didn't know anything about him. It was the furthest thing from the truth of course. Jason didn't show that side of him to complete strangers was all. If he had met Lady all on her own, Zack guessed she would've just seen the version everyone else saw.

Despite it all, it wasn't that bad. Being the new kid was always hard and it was clear that Lady was plain weird about talking to people. Nothing was wrong with that. Billy was also weird about talking to people and he was one of the greatest people Zack knew. It took Billy a while to come out of his shell or to be in his element to shine.

Maybe that was the case with Lady?

"So, Lady, what kinda stuff you into?"

She froze. "Er... I-I, uh, I dunno."

"C'mon, there's gotta be something that gets you hyped."

She rested her chin on her hand for a few moments, then spoke up. "Um, I box... And I like writing and music. I guess. I play bass sometimes...I dunno. Why?"

"Just curious, is all. What kinda music? You strike me as a... Madonna—no!  _Duran Duran_  kinda girl?" Zack shot in the dark with that statement. Madonna had been his first guess since she was so popular. Duran Duran might've been stuck in his mind because he had been thinking about Billy a moment ago.

Regardless, Zack was wrong.  _Really_  wrong.

"N-no! No, no, no," She said, fighting off a fit of giggles. Where it had come from, he wasn't very sure.

"T-Talking Heads! I like Talking Heads. I love them. I like them a lot. I like David Byrne's solo stuff too but I like Talking Heads more. Tina Weymouth's bass is nice and it's not as weird, y'know? Like, he's a weird guy, I know. His latest album, 'Uh-Oh', goes from goofy but relatable stuff like 'Girls on My Mind' to pretty stuff like 'Somebody'? Am I making sense—OH! I like their concert movie too, 'Stop Making Sense'? It's one of my favourites, I wish I could've been there when they were filming it? But I was only seven when it came out so who knows but I was a big, big, big, BIG fan even back then. Their first album came out when I was born, y'know? How cool is that? It makes me feel special-"

Suddenly, her mouth shut and she deflated like a balloon. Somehow, she was gloomier than when he had first met him. Her hands went to the ends of her hair again. The one braid had become undone with how much she fiddled with it today. "Sorry..." she said.

"Hey, no, don't be sorry. It's cool how into it you are. We all have our things, y'know?" He said, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder.

She tensed under his touch before wriggling away from him. "Don'ttouchmeplease."

"Hey, no problem at all." He backed off, taking a step away from her and lifting both his hands in the air to show he wasn't touching her. A touch dramatic, but it seemed to work in his favour. She relaxed and her posture opened up once again. Not that it was that open, to begin with. "Don't take this the wrong way but, you remind me of a friend of mine. She's kinda shy too, so I get it."

She gave him a shrug. "It's okay."

He shot her one of his more charming grins. "Glad to know that you're so understanding, Milady."

The girl rolled her eyes.

Zack looked at his watch, getting that antsy feeling he always did whenever it was almost the end of a class. It was like clockwork. Sure enough, it was seven minutes before the bell would ring. He sucked his teeth before looking at Lady. The tour finished. He showed and told her everything that she needed to know about the school. He had dawdled quite a bit, taking advantage of what was essentially two free periods. Guilt ate away at him somewhat as he thought about Trini and Kimberly. He was sure that they would've had the tour finished right away. But, could he complain? He got a shorter school day the last day before break. With a satisfied sigh, he gave her another look.

"Hey, so, I gotta get to class in a bit. I'll take you back to the main office though. After all, a true gentleman always escorts the Lady to the door."

She closed her eyes, biting her lip to hide the smile that spread on her face. "Whatever, Zack Attack."

Zack grinned.

* * *

"Where were you this morning, Zack? I didn't see you in theatre class," Trini said as she scooted her chair closer to the table. Everyone besides Billy, who needed to pick up a few things for his project, was at the Juice Bar. She gazed at Zack while he ogled Angela, who was on the treadmill. He turned towards her, their eyes catching for a moment. Heat rose to her face once she had been caught. She looked inside her cup, hoping the mango smoothie would cool her down.

"He was giving a new girl the Welcoming Committee treatment," Jason jumped in. "Bad time for anyone to be transferring in, isn't it? Last day before the break?"

"More like the best time to start school, I'd say. She gets to miss Friego's 'surprise-but-not-really-a-surprise' pop quizzes" Zack laughed. "Nah, but, she doesn't start until after the break."

"Still! What a weird time to be coming in though? It's, like,  _suuuuper_  late in the school year too. Like, did her parents get a job transfer or something?" Kimberly asked as she scribbled things down into a notepad. She needed to figure out some stuff she needed to have for her and Trini's trip to Palm Springs. It was hard to focus or remember it all though.  _Crap_ , hopefully, she'd remember it when going over her stuff tonight.

"I dunno, Kim. She didn't like talking about herself... Or talking at all. Unless it was about that band, Talking Heads."

"Are you just trying to see how many times you can, like, say 'talking' in one sentence?"

Zack rolled his eyes and laughed, the sound making Trini's stomach flutter. "Hey, what was the new girl's name?" she said, wanting to distract herself more than anything. "I wonder if it's the same girl Kimberly and I saw earlier in the week?"

"Something kinda stupid, if I gotta be honest." Trini frowned when Jason replied. Her annoyance was more at his tone and what he had said more than anything. He leaned back in his chair with a smirk. " _Girly_...  _Something_."

"It was  _Lady_ , you jerk," Zack laughed, leaning over to give his friend a playful shove. It was more than enough to send Jason crashing down onto the floor. Trini slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to mask that she was laughing at the suddenness of it all. She felt bad but it was somehow satisfying seeing him get his comeuppance. Not as much as it was with Bulk and Skull, of course. By the time Zack dashed to where his friend was to help him up off the ground, she had calmed down somewhat. "Sorry about that, Jase."

"It's cool, man."

"You guys alright over there?" The four of them looked over at Ernie, who walked out behind the bar with a tray of drinks in hand. Zack winced as the large man made his way around to serve another table.

"Yeah, I got carried away. Sorry, Ernie."

The man smiled with a shake of his head. "As much as I love you guys, I can't have you guys roughhousing in here. Unless it's on the mats in the gym, of course. Try to keep it under control, okay? Someone can get hurt."

The gang nodded and gave their apologies before Kim leaned over the table to nudge Zack. She looked over at Angela, who was doing her stretches after her work out. "Ooooh, Angela better watch out for this new girl, if you're getting this worked up over her~! Maybe she'll get jealous and finally go out with you."

Trini grimaced as she took a long drink from her smoothie as the rest of her friends teased Zack. Why was this bothering her so much? Normally, she was able to deal with this sort of thing. Was it because she was used to seeing how well Zack's attempts to woo Angela went?

"More like she'd be glad that he wasn't bugging her anymore," Jason laughed. This time he dodged Zack's swipes at him. "I'm kidding, man. Angela doesn't know what she's missin' out on."

"So her name is Lady, you said?" Trini asked, once again trying to change the direction of the conversation. They'd still end up talking about the new girl, but at least it wouldn't be about Zack's dating life. Or lack thereof, at the moment. "Was she about Kim's height? Long black hair and sunglasses?"

"Yeah! That's her."

"Are you four conversing about my neighbour?" Billy asked, making everyone at the table look up. He placed his bag on the floor before pulling up a chair from another table and placing it next to Kimberly. "I wasn't aware that she attended the school today as well. It was quite consternating when I visually perceived her at the gymnasium on Tuesday."

"Consternating? Like, what does— _wait_. Someone finally moved into that house across the street from you?"

"Affirmative. When my mother saw the 'Sold' sign on the lawn, she was as stupefied as you are. It's been on sale for so long that we cerebrated that no one was ever going to move in again. Or at least longer than a few months. Perhaps that is why my parents have taken it upon themselves to be so welcoming to Dr. Johnson and Lady. So that when they ineluctably do vacate the premises, they'll stay in touch." He blinked when he noticed how hard his friends were staring. "May I ask why you are all staring at me like one of Ms. Appleby's more difficult exam questions?"

Kimberly clapped her hands once then held them together as she leaned towards Billy with furrowed eyebrows. "Well, first of all, you didn't tell us about the new girl! You, like, live right across the street from her and your parents and her parents are like... best friends now, right? You should've invited her to come with us to the movies yesterday! Way to be a good neighbour, Billy!" Before Billy could interject with what was most likely an excuse, she started right back up again. "And it's just, like, totally weird that you never mentioned someone moving into that creep-o house. I remember us all sneaking in there in sixth grade to—"

"To test my newly constructed P.K.E Meter, yes."

"What a bust of a busting that whole adventure was," Jason said with a sigh. "Billy even got his Halloween costume for it. Sorry."

Trini looked over at Billy, wondering what Jason was apologizing for. Only to see him looking at the ground with a sheepish smile. His face flushed as his hands ran through his hair, something he did when embarrassed. If she was sitting next to him instead of Kimberly, she would've given him a gentle pat on the shoulder. She settled for giving him a sweet smile before speaking, "Well, we all had fun back then at least. Though, we shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Precisely," Billy began as he looked at Jason. "There's no hard feelings, Jason. It was illogical for me to build such a device to begin with. Nothing peculiar like apparitions or monsters would ever appear in Angel Grove. In the extraordinarily low chances of them existing at all. I should be the one to apologize for inadvertently dragging you all into my puerile delusions back then."

"Don't sweat it, it was eons ago. It'd be just as..." Jason trailed off before licking his lips. He shot a look at Trini, his dark eyes begging for a translation for what his friend said. Or a possible confirmation that what he might say was what he thought it might be.

"Puerile, it means childish.," she said, her voice wavering as what little confidence she had in her definition left her. She was sure that it had been a word she lost a spelling bee over in grade school. "I... I think?"

"That's correct, Trini."

Jason sighed in relief. He must've guessed correctly. "It'd be just as childish if I was still mad about it... Not that I ever was to begin with—wait a minute. Wasn't it  _Kimberly_  that insisted that we try it out in that house?"

"Yeah! And  _she_  was the one to freak out over a coat rack that was still in the house, right?" Zack said, making everyone laugh at the memory.

They had all sneaked into the house through one of the back windows that was left open. Years later, Zack still didn't know how or why it was left open. Maybe a real estate agent that had gotten too hot? He was sure that they wouldn't have done anything if both doors and the windows they could reach weren't open.

They explored the main floor together. The found nothing but tacky seventies decor and the late afternoon sun casting menacing shadows through the dusty windows. Eventually, someone suggested that they should split up. If they were older and in a horror movie instead of a house in the middle of the suburbs, Zack would've smacked whoever suggested it. But when you're dumb and eleven years old with parents that wouldn't let you see PG movies, you tend to not know about how people died in horror movies.

It worked out for Scooby Doo and the gang, after all.

Zack remembered he was the one that found the door to the basement. He remembered the argument he and Jason had about who would go down first (" _You_  found it, so  _you_  go first!" "How about it's like when my Ma says I gotta clean dishes 'cause she cooked.  _I_  found the door, so...  _you_  go in!" " _You're_  such a chicken!" " _You're_  a bigger one!"). Then, they heard a scream from upstairs. The boys dashed up the stairs and found the room the girls were in. There was Trini on the ground, hugging a crying Kimberly who was beside a knocked over coat rack that looked as old as his grandma.

Kimberly sputtered, looking away from everyone and fighting back laughter as she buried her face in Trini's shoulder. "Oh my God, you guys! It could've, like, happened to anyone so shut up!"

When the five had finally calmed down, Zack got up from his chair. "Well, as nice as it was to reminisce over Kim's fear of coat racks, I gotta jet. Ma probably found out I haven't packed by now and is about to flip. So, I gotta get home and get ready _now_."

"Alright, hope you have fun in DC, dude. Say 'hi' to your grandma for me," Jason said, holding up his hand for Zack to high five on his way up.

"Yeah! We'll miss you while we're in Palm Springs!" Trini said as she waved, fighting back a grimace.

"I'll miss you girls too, Trini. Now, Billy," Zack said, his tone switching from light to heavy as he placed both hands on the other's shoulders. "I have an important job for you."

"O-oh? What is it?"

"I need you..." He took a deep breath before solemnly staring into Billy's eyes before breaking out into a wide smile. "To make sure none of the girls in Angel Grove are lonely while I'm in DC and Jase is in LA, alright?  _It's all up to you, man._ "

Billy blushed deeply for the second time that afternoon. Sliding down his seat, he buried his face in his hands while his friends laughed.

* * *

As he pulled closer to his house, Billy noticed someone squatting on the very edge of his driveway. Confused, he parked his father's station wagon in front of next door's lawn and walked towards the figure. The aroma of cigarette smoke wafted through the air and invaded his senses. Immediately, his chest felt tight. On instinct, he reached for the front of his shirt and pulled it over his nose. The other dove into his pocket for his inhaler in case he needed it. He knew his makeshift mask would do little against the smoke.

"Oh shit," said a familiar voice.

There was Lady, who only had half of her hair braided, on the edge of his driveway. She tossed the cigarette onto the cement. She then shuffled forward so she could pivot her foot onto the butt while still squatting. Sighing, she stood up with the sound of her knees popping echoing in the evening air. Billy couldn't help but wonder why she didn't stamp the cigarette out when she was up. The grey smoke billowed in the darkening sky as the scent still lingered around them.

Once the smoke had visually dissipated he let go of his shirt, despite knowing better. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. "What are you doing?"

"What did it look like?" She replied, leaning down to pick up the butt and shove it into her pocket.

"I meant what are you doing on my driveway."

Lady rolled her eyes then nodded.

"Oh, duh, right. Uh... My dad 'n' your parents are hanging out again. Like, Darla invited me too because she made more weird casseroles—what is with white, no, white people in the US and casserole by the way? Like I saw it once in Montana at a classmate's place and I was like ' _Oh, uh, okay_ '. Then I move to California and it's all over the place. My friends, Kaitlin 'n' Ryan's moms would make that shit too nearly every time I came over, it's fuckin' weird!"

She took a deep breath.

" _ANYWAY_... I figured I don't have anything better to do anyway because free food but then I realized I had kinda a shit day so I really wanted a smoke and I'm not that kind of an asshole that smokes in people's houses? And even if I was, you have asthma, man! I was like, ' _Oh no, what if it's too close to the house even if I do that out here?_ ' But I didn't wanna walk all the way to my place but I didn't wanna be too close to your house and so that's why I'm out here and, well, here we are."

Billy blinked slowly. Once, twice, three times. It wasn't very sound logic she used. But, there was an attempt at it and he could follow it. For the most part.

"I see. I appreciate your efforts, Lady, but I can't help but ponder whether or not you should be smoking in the first place. I recommend that you don't do it around my house at all. Partly to facilitate your paranoia of sending me into an asthmatic attack and to stay safe... Or, quitting that fixation as a whole, as there is a multitude of adverse health effects. Along with it just smelling unpleasant, I've found. Have you considered discontinuing tobacco?"

" _Have you considered sucking a dick?_ " She said, shoving her hands into her pockets and staring at him.

He was speechless.

Perhaps he should use his inhaler anyway.

Even in the low light, he could see her lips curling into a nervous smile. Her gaze moved down to her shoes. "Sorry, I... I didn't mean it like that," she said finally. "It was just a joke, not a very funny one. Sorry. I, ah, I get kinda... gross. I dunno why."

"It's... It's fine. It just took me by surprise is all." Billy's voice was distant as he pulled out his inhaler and popped off the cap. He kept his eye on her, noticing she wouldn't look at him for longer than three milliseconds before sheepishly looking away. He shook the canister before speaking up again. "It's common for... colleagues to speak to each other in an informal and crass matter at times, isn't it?"

"Are we...  _colleagues_?" She asked while he took a deep breath and a puff of his medication.

Ten seconds passed. "I don't see why not," he replied, finding it easier to breathe now.

She laughed, her fingers toying with the lone braid she wore. "'Kay, cool. I'm... I'm gonna go change."

"May I ask why?"

"I was just smoking, dude. It's probably all in my clothes or something."

"I don't think you have to do that," he said with a smile. His hand running through his hair as she stretched her arms out. "I appreciate it, but you don't have to."

"I feel bad that you had to use your puffer at all though. And, uh, y'know... I gotta facilitate my paranoia somehow. Or whatever." She puffed out her cheeks and returned his smile. "So... See ya later,  _colleague,_ " she said with a wave before heading across the street.

The smile on his face grew wider as he made his way to the house. Was she getting more comfortable around him? The question rang in his mind as he walked inside and greeted his parents and Dr. Johnson. After exchanging the normal pleasantries (What happened at school today, what his plans for the break were, what his friends' plans were, and if he saw Lady today), he started to make his way to his room. The sound of a chair being pushed from the table and footsteps behind him surprised Billy.

"Hey, Billy, can I talk t'ya for a second?" Dr. Johnson asked. Billy noticed how his hands just couldn't stay in one place. They went from his pockets, the end of his braid, in front of his chest and clasped together before settling on twisting a ring on his left ring finger. It was strange, seeing an outspoken man like Dr. Johnson act this way.

Acting like Lady.

"Er... Certainly, sir. What's on your mind?"

Dr. Johnson smiled sheepishly. The way he smiled was identical to Lady's; like father, like daughter, Billy supposed. "It's about Lady. She's probably sick of my shit at this point, eh? I've been hinting at her to try to talk and hang out with other kids, like the ones she met this week, and you. But, she won't budge. She's not gonna make the first move. She's always had a hard time making friends, even as a little girl."

"Oh." It was all Billy could say. It was something he related to. He preferred to keep to himself as a child, and even now, especially when he moved here in third grade. Trini had been the one to approach him first, after she first 'translated' his extensive vocabulary to the class...and teacher. It took some time, but, she managed to get him to spend time with her friends. Now, here he was. He still struggled with the whole socialization thing, but, he had four dear friends. Four friends that accepted and supported him and his hobbies.

Did Lady never have anything like that?

The thought made him frown.

"Basically, what I'm trying to ask is... Do you mind hangin' out with her over the break? I know you got your own thing goin' on. This isn't me askin' you to hang out with her all day, every day. That'd be fuckin' stupid and selfish. Just check up on her once in a while, whenever you're free?"

Billy hummed. His arms crossed in front of his chest before one hand reached up to stroke his chin. He had plans. Plans to work on the Rad Bug the whole break as there'd never be a better time to do so. As much as he cherished his friends... They had a tendency to drag him away from his projects for a charity event or to hang out.

Well... Breaks  _were_  important.

The image of Lady's earlier smile faded into his mind.

She genuinely seemed to be getting comfortable around him. As crass and awkward as she could be, not that he could talk since he had trouble talking to anyone that wasn't in his circle, she really wasn't that bad. Perhaps, he could help her like Trini helped him.

"Alright. That's something I can do, Dr. Johnson."

The man beamed. "Thank you so much, Billy. It really means a lot."

"It's no problem at all, sir."

As Dr. Johnson walked back to the kitchen, a thought crossed Billy's mind as he walked up the stairs. Perhaps, this could also count as fulfilling Zack's "important job" for him. He laughed.

**end**

 


End file.
